“Of all the things wasted in our throwaway times, the greatest is wasted talent.”
Did you know that there are a lot of people around the world who could help make the world a better place but don’t? People who have the power to shape their own careers – but you’d never know it from their CVs. But then, there are the talented with the world at their feet who get stuck in mind-numbing, pointless or harmful jobs.
This is where their ‘moral ambition’ comes into play, as per a Guardian article (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/19/no-youre-not-fine-just-the-way-you-are-time-to-quit-your-pointless-job-become-morally-ambitious-and-change-the-world ), which got me thinking about whether people know if they are morally ambitious or not and whether they know what it means?
According to the article’s writer Rutger Bregman, most working people can be put into one of three categories, from idealistic yet unambitious to greedy and immoral. But there is also another option.
He shared that moral ambition ‘is the will to make the world a wildly better place’. People who experience it might go on to work towards solving the climate crisis or some sort of corruption, inequality or preventing another pandemic. He wrote that these people long to make a difference because they realise that they only have one life to live.
If this sounds like you, there are three options you could opt to get into, depending on how much time you have to devote to it.
The first option is for those who have a full-time job and cannot invest a great amount in their cause. These people tend to opt for the ‘financial freedom’ route, where they attempt to make passive income via cryptocurrency or stocks and shares.
The second group of people (which he terms ‘wasted talent’ – a bit harsh!) is for people who have reached the top of their industry but find no joy in their work. They might start piling their talents into entrepreneurial activities, selling a new trendy product or casing through LinkedIn for new networking opportunities. But they just aren’t happy despite their accomplishments.
The third group of people are those who are not ambitious at all. I’ve spoken quite a lot about how Gen Z do not like the hustle culture and want no part in office politics after having seen what it did to their parents’ generation, and that is why it’s no surprise that Gen Z is the prominent section of people who fall into this third category.
For them, they prefer to do the small deeds with the biggest values. But they don’t want to do the big work. This could be getting that big climate job in an activism company or something else that’s equally as large. However, I would argue that just surviving month to month in this era is an achievement, especially facing rising costs and greater uncertainty across the board. I know actuaries are good at thinking long term but I wouldn’t blame you for doing a bit of living for the moment!
These three categories encapsulate most of the people who want to do good but have varying degrees of ambition to do so. But you can do something else instead. How about doing what you can with the time you have and enjoying it along the way? And where do you think actuaries working in insurance/investment sit along the morally ambitious spectrum?
