Ambition: Why It's Good to Want More and How to Get It

4 Supercharge your motivation

“Carpe Diem, seize the day … make your lives extraordinary.”

John Keating in Dead Poets Society, Touchstone Pictures

Will Greenwood started playing rugby as a child and was in the first team at school. By the time he was 24 he was playing amateur rugby with the London-based Harlequins team at weekends while pursuing a highly paid career as a trader with HSBC bank. So when the English Rugby Union game suddenly turned professional in 1996 Will had a straight choice. To stay on with HSBC and further his career while continuing to play amateur rugby in his spare time – or to find out if he had what it takes to be a professional rugby player. He chose the latter.

Will is very clear about why he made the choice he ...