What does ambition mean to you?
Are you ambitious?
Why do you think you are this way?
This amazing new book looks at ambition and what it means to be a New Zealander. It examines the way we formulate and share our dreams and plans with each other, and looks at how ambition might be connected with business, our personal lives, and our national identity.
Come along for an interesting chinwag with the authors (and bookstore owners).
Pre-order your signed copy here and pick it up on the day or get it shipped to your door:
https://theopenbook.co.nz/products/ambition
What others said
This is an important book which comes at just the right time. The world is changing at a frenetic pace and disruption is now the new routine. In this kind of climate thinking about ‘ambition’ in a critical way is crucial. Understanding what it is, what New Zealanders think about it, and why all that matters, is one of the most fundamentally important first steps in charting our course as individuals, and as a nation.
- Nigel Latta, Broadcaster
Ambition is a good thing. We need to start talking about ambition in a positive way: something that Kiwis should come to see as part-and-parcel of what it means to be a successful New Zealander. This book is a great start to this important national conversation.
- Sir Stephen Tindall, Founder of The Warehouse and The Tindall Foundation
E whakaatu ana tēnei pukapuka, ki te awhero nui tātou ki ō tātou iwi, tō tātou whenua, ō tātou ana, tō tātou taiao, tō tātou reo Māori, me tō tātou ahurea, ka piki te ora whānui ki a tātou katoa.
This book shows how being ambitious for the future of our people, our land, our rivers, our environment, our Māori language and our culture can lead to better wellbeing for all of us.
- Tania Ka’ai, Professor of Language Revitalisation, AUT
What a revelation! After years of vaguely understanding that Kiwis tend to think about ambition and achievement differently, now we can truly understand why. This is a fascinating read that helps us understand how to leverage our unique drive for greater impact.
- Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO, Flywheel Sports
Maybe one day we’ll no longer settle with punching above our weight and aspire to be good in our own right. If so, this book might plot the course.
- Rowan Simpson, Hoku
It is both easy and dangerous to assume the way we approach ambitions in our own lives is normal and shared by others. This book helps us understand that people are living with very different views on how widely and how deeply they are driven to influence and act.
- Lillian Grace, CEO, FigureNZ
Ambition is not a dirty word. Whether you're ambitious for your family, your business, your community or your sport, this book tells every Kiwi: you're not alone.
- Phil Veal, Kea Chair
About the authors
Julie Fry is a consulting economist and World Class New Zealander who divides her time between New York and a family farm near Motueka. Julie has Masters degrees in economics from both the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, and was a Nuffield Fellow at the University of Warwick. She has worked for the New Zealand Treasury, Te Puni Kōkiri, and HM Treasury in London, on issues including productivity, immigration, Māori economic development, and wellbeing. Julie is the founder and CEO of AmbitionNZ.
Hayden Glass has long worked as a consultant on labour market and other public policy issues, and the economic impacts of data and technology. He has worked for the Sapere Research Group, Vodafone, the Treasury, and for Figure.NZ, a charity working to make data about New Zealand more readily available. Hayden has a Masters in Law and a BA from Canterbury University.
Hayden and Julie co-authored Going Places (2016), which examines the economics of immigration. Together with another friend, they own The Open Book, this delightful secondhand bookstore in Ponsonby, Auckland.
