British self-deprecation is holding us back as a nation
As someone who came of age in Thatcher’s Britain, I don’t mind admitting I’m aspirational – although in my youth, some of my cooler contemporaries certainly tried to embarrass me about it.
It was fine to be wealthy through an inheritance, but undignified to try to make one’s own way in the world.
Downplaying ambition has long been a peculiarly British trait. A 2024 global survey by Randstad suggests that only 42pc of British workers would describe themselves as ambitious, compared with a 56pc global average and a whopping 90pc of workers in India.
And our stance is in stark contrast to America, where I have worked and continue to visit regularly, serving on company boards there. Americans are proud of their success, and see self-made wealth both as a validation of that success and an opportunity to give back.
A distinguished American career has three distinct phases, “learning, earning, serving”. Those who’ve done well may live in beautiful homes; they are also often very generous to those institutions who have helped them along the way. Universities are frequent beneficiaries, enabling them to provide scholarships for the less privileged or especially talented. What’s not to like?
Yet we consciously talk down our achievements here – and this downplaying of ambition and success puts Britain at a real disadvantage. Yes, modesty is admirable. And yes, it’s rational to be self-deprecating in a country where some media outlets make a sport of building people up before taking them down “a peg or two”. But if it’s not just being low key – if we actually lack ambition – that’s a big problem.
I recently wrote that many young people have lost the chance to dream, given the prevailing pessimism. It’s not just the nihilistic messages about the future that undermine the point of it all: if success is not even deemed worth aiming for, there isn’t even reason to dream. Admittedly, there are a few exceptions, such as footballing stardom or TikTok influencer status.
We need to talk about success and openly encourage ambition in this country, while recognising that success today means many things. We’ve moved on from my generation’s focus on conventional, material success – money, a big job title, power.
The most popular destinations for high-performing graduates when I left university were finance and management consultancy, followed by law and accounting. Those more interested in power than money (or perhaps both) chose politics. Just a few talented people left Cambridge when I did and embarked on something different.
For the rest of us, it was no coincidence that the preferred sectors offered the highest starting salaries and quickest paths to promotion. To be fair, most didn’t intend to stick around long. We had even grander ambitions and saw a few years’ decent salary as the springboard for the next adventure – setting up our own business, or embarking on what we “really” wanted to do.
In the event, many never left, enjoying the work, seeing careers take off, and acquiring financial commitments. Some achieved their dream much later in life – a fellow graduate trainee quit his investment banking career in his early 50s to embark on a making wine.
The City’s image has since been badly tarnished by the financial crisis, repeated scandals and accounts of brutally long hours for junior bankers. It slipped to eighth place as a destination of choice in 2016 when the 30% Club canvassed the views of more than 20,000 students at 21 British universities.
More recently, the rising cost of living has helped improve the popularity of finance once again, while technology is an exciting rival, alongside a broader range of favoured careers, including social and charity work, teaching and healthcare. What’s key is that young people aim high whatever their career choice.
So, let’s get it out of our British heads that being aspirational is something to hide. Let’s celebrate each other’s ambitions and success and that just may persuade more people to clearly set out their goals – and achieve them.