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Squiggly Careers

Are You Wasting Your Talent? (Why Moral Ambition Matters)

Squiggly Careers

AmazingIf

Business, Management, Careers

4.9838 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What does it mean to live — and work — with moral ambition? In this episode of the Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah introduces ideas from Rutger Bregman’s book Moral Ambition and Helen helps turn them into practical actions you can apply in your own career. You’ll hear why moral ambition is about using your 80,000 working hours wisely, how to close the belief–behaviour gap, and what small steps you can take to make a bigger difference. Together, Helen and Sarah explore how to connect Bregman’s big ideas to the everyday reality of squiggly careers. Episode 502 🦞 Pre-order Learn Like A Lobster: PRH US - https://bit.ly/3KxTeBn Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3KcRZaR ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:18 Moral ambition 05:59 The belief–behaviour gap (what we say vs. what we do) 12:01 Action 1 19:23 Action 2 23:58 Action 3 29:36 Reflections 🎯 What You’ll Learn -What moral ambition is and why it matters - How to spot your own belief–behaviour gaps - Practical ways to volunteer and use your strengths for impact - How to extend your positive influence beyond your current circle - Why finding morally ambitious role models helps you take action For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 📩 Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 📮 Get Squiggly Careers in Action in your inbox: https://bit.ly/SquigglyCareersInAction 📚 Read our books: The Squiggly Career and You Coach You: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I do think as you go through this, for most people, it is quite confronting.

0:04.1

I think it will encourage you to ask some provoking questions.

0:08.1

It is a really good read.

0:09.1

Actually, it's a really inspiring read.

0:11.3

But at the same time, sometimes those people who have changed the world can make you also feel like I'm so far away from that.

0:18.4

Yes.

0:21.3

So here's definition of moral ambition. This is what I'm like, prepare yourself.

0:25.0

It's the longing to make a difference and to leave a legacy.

0:28.8

You don't do good things because you're a good person.

0:31.2

You become a good person by doing good things.

0:33.8

Okay, we've got heavy.

0:35.1

Yeah.

0:35.7

But I would say that the majority of people, they're probably

0:40.4

not necessarily consciously thinking about some of these world's biggest problems every day. Yeah,

0:44.7

I'm probably not going to work every day going, I'm so ambitious. The bullshit job thing.

0:48.6

I have a little bit of friction with that term, but I think I understand what he's trying to do,

0:52.5

which he's saying,

0:56.6

Hi, I'm Helen and I'm Sarah.

1:04.1

And this is the Squiggly Careers podcast, where every week we get curious and use our conversation to turn that curiosity into action to support you in your squiggly career.

1:08.5

And we're borrowing brilliance from lots of different things.

1:10.9

It could be people.

1:12.2

So we've done one with Richard Feynman, a physicist.

...

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