By Adar Kielczewski

Herbert Armstrong was hard working. Starting from the time he was about 8 years old, he gained experience in many jobs ranging from simple, menial tasks like being an errand and delivery boy to the trade of drafting for a furnace company.

Throughout those early adolescent years, he performed many odd jobs, but it was one summer job at age 16 that changed his life forever. It lit the spark of ambition.

Before taking this job waiting tables at a hotel, he wasn’t much of a leader. Although not lazy, he contentedly gave the lead to the older boys. He gave little thought to what abilities he himself possessed. But this job caused him to believe in himself.

“This was the turning point in my life,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in his autobiography.

What changed?

The owner of the hotel highly praised Mr. Armstrong’s work. He pointed out capabilities that Mr. Armstrong had never realized he had. This friendly owner “expressed great confidence” in him and saw in him qualities “that were destined to carry me to large success in life,” he wrote.

It wasn’t until someone encouraged Mr. Armstrong to recognize his abilities and do something with them that his life took off in a meaningful direction. This man changed young Herbert Armstrong’s life. Mr. Armstrong went away from this job with a strong desire for advancement and achievement.

The point is, it doesn’t matter what abilities you have if you aren’t using them. Mr. Armstrong’s will had to be stirred to action.

“It is impossible to estimate the importance of this sudden arousal of ambition—this injection of an intense desire for success,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “This, I believe, is the vital ingredient that has been missing in most human lives.”

Far too many people wander aimlessly through life. Few set goals and work to achieve them. Ambition suggests a determined effort to chase after something. It means doing what it takes to get something done.

Has the spark of ambition been lit in you?

If you have a copy, read pages 20-23 in the first volume (or read chapter 1 online) of Mr. Armstrong’s Autobiography to see the story of how the spark of ambition fired his engine, and think about your own life. Are you really motivated, fired up? Are you moving toward definite goals? If Mr. Armstrong’s life is any indication, once the spark of ambition lights your engines, you will really blast off!