America the Beautiful

Today I'm launching a new name and paid subscriptions

I’ve been writing for two decades on career advice, business inspiration, and how big-picture economics impact your life. My weekly email reaches over 1 million subscribers, and I’ve written seven books that have been Amazon Careers #1 bestsellers.  It is a special privilege to reach so many of you, and to learn so much from you in return.

American Ambition is my new newsletter that lets me broaden my writing on the topics I find most meaningful and go even more deeply into the areas I love sharing with you.  And today I’m officially launching the paid subscriptions to this newsletter, along with the new name and logo.

First and foremost, I’m an American enthusiast. What we’ve created here on this continent is special, without equal in all of world history.  I’m always finding something new, fantastic or inspiring that motivates me to share the wonder that is America.  And no matter how much I write, the list of topics keeps growing beyond my ability to capture it all.

It’s a story of people who’ve made choices, taken risks, and built a country that is special in more ways than we’ll ever be able to count.  For regular people, America has meant freedom, success, safety, riches and prosperity.  Important injustices will keep being corrected.  Overall, it’s been a better deal for our fellow citizens than any other country that came before. And it’s a better promise for tomorrow than any other country on the planet today.  

We were fortunate to be born or come here. We’re fortunate to benefit from all that was handed down to us by those who went before. And we’re fortunate to be free. I’m deeply grateful for that, and I know you are too.

What’s even more motivating is that America’s best days are always ahead. Each of us creates our own America for today and for tomorrow. 

So this is a newsletter about American Ambition. How we get ahead, what we’re doing when we arrive, and a celebration of the journey. It’s my favorite story.

Americans. Aren’t we gorgeous? | Matt Slocum/AP Photo

In this newsletter, I’ll share inspiration, technology that helps get you ahead, business success that you can learn from, how laws help and hurt our progress, an appreciation for America, what the big picture in business means for you, and yes, occasionally, some career advice.

All are long-standing passions of mine.

If you enjoy them too, I’d love to have you as my 1,000,001st (and counting…) subscriber.

Why subscribe today?

American Ambition gives you insights beyond the clickbait, and helps you sound smart about the big picture issues that touch your family and your community.

One of the frustrating things about modern life is that the people who get it wrong always claim to have some big pile of facts and figures that support their point of view.  You know it’s nonsense, but who has time to study up on all the details and prove them wrong? 

American Ambition gives you straight answers in plain English that provide you with the ammunition you need to set the record straight.  I’ll break down the seemingly complicated topics and show you the simple truths and eternal concepts underlying the world today.  And I’ll connect the dots as to how it impacts your family and your community.

I’m a technology user, but not a technology cheerleader. Too much technology gets in the way of our success, rather than helping us live better lives.  I’ve been programming computers since I went to Radio Shack every day after school in the fifth grade to learn how to code BASIC on a TRS-80 computer.  Having been a fan for decades and an internet executive for twenty years, I’ll help you navigate beyond the hype to find just the things that will be meaningful for you.  And I’ll help you feel OK about ignoring the rest.

I’m a careers expert who will remind you that your career is not the most important thing.  I want you to be able to get ahead in your personal life, with your family, and your friends, by making sure you see your career as a tool, not a purpose.  As a tool, though, there are tricks, tips and hacks for getting the most out of your career, and I’ll share them all.

I graduated in the top 5% of my class at Harvard Business School, but never went in for the golden jobs in investment banking, consulting, or high-priced government contracting.  I’ll help explain what’s going on behind the scenes in the world of my Yale and Harvard classmates, but from the point of view of someone who prefers working with, and writing for, the real America.

New name and logo for this newsletter.

And speaking of writing, I’m a writer who knows that keeping it short is harder, but more helpful and more interesting to readers like you.  There’s too many complicated writers out there who prefer to sound fancy and write flashy instead of telling it like it is. Writers who won’t invest the extra hour or two it takes to make the complicated story simple, or the human drama plain.

Most complicated things in the world can be boiled down to the basics, and I view my job as a writer to be doing the hard work to make even the most convoluted concepts as clear as you need them to be.  I love big words and exotic jargon as much as the next writer, but you won't find sentences stuffed with ten-dollar words or six-syllable silliness in American Ambition.

And, finally, I think our form of government is the greatest ever made, but know that government isn’t the answer to our problems.  I’ll cover how government can stay out of the way most of the time and get involved only some of the time.  

The patron saint of American Ambition would have to be Benjamin Franklin. He was in many ways the first American.  Ambitious, clever, entrepreneurial, plain-speaking with a mischievous sense of humor. 

Cornered by the Mayor of Philadelphia’s impressive wife after the Constitutional Convention of 1787 came to a close, she demanded of him, “Well, Dr. Franklin, what type of government have we got?”

He replied:

“A republic.  If you can keep it.”

I hope you’ll join me as we work together - laugh together, learn together, celebrate together, cheer together - to keep our end of the bargain and rise to meet Dr. Franklin’s challenge.

What are the details?

Everybody gets the big free newsletter on Mondays, where I tackle a relevant, interesting, or inspiring angle on the world around us.

Paid members get the rest of the week as well. On Wednesdays and Fridays I take a deeper dive into the big issues, and take advantage of your support to see where the writing takes me.

With your paid subscription you also get full access to the newsletter and website.  You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.

Paid subscriptions are $5 / month and $50 / year in 2022. I publish three days a week, forty-six weeks per year.

Comments Policy

Last updated July 2022

Polite comments are welcome.  Polite comments with strong viewpoints are encouraged.  Polite comments with strong viewpoints that disagree with the newsletter are encouraged to stay polite, or you’ll be deleted.

I especially enjoy and welcome comments that disagree with me and prove their point with facts, figures, and citations. See for example this comment, where reader Phil Feller convinced me that my viewpoint was wrong and I updated the post as a result.

Meaningful comments are preferred to multiple comments.  Please don’t leave a dozen weak one-liner replies in the comments - I’ll delete them.  It’s far better to make 2 or 3 well-reasoned, concise, substantial comments.  That way we can see your best thinking.

If you’ve been sent to this section by me, please do keep participating, even (especially!) if you disagree, but make an effort toward a smaller number of impressively-argued comments that will move the conversation forward rather than mere contradiction or abuse. 

Thanks again for being a part of American Ambition and I look forward to hearing from you in the comments. I read them all.

Let’s grow!