---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 6
published: 1918-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, “Ambition,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 6 (April 1918): 498."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2106unse
start_page: 498
end_page: 498
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Ambition

<!-- page:498 -->

Ambition

(Selected)

If you would rise above the throng

And seek the crown of fame,

You must do more than drift along

And merely play the game.

Whatever path your feet may tread,

Whatever be your quest,

The only way to get ahead

Is striving for the best.

'Tis not enough to wish to do

A day's toil fairly well;

If you would rise to glory, you

Must hunger to excel.

The boy who has the proper stuff

Goes into every test,

Not seeking to be "good enough,"

But eager to be "best."

Aim high! And though you fail today

And may tomorrow fail,

Keep pounding steadily away,

Some day you'll hit the nail.

At no half-way mark ever pause

In. snug content to rest,

Who would win honor and applause

Must want to be the best.

The best must be your aim in life,

The best in sport or work,

Sucess in any form of strife,

Falls never to the shirk.

The crowns of leadership are few,

The followers move in throngs,

If you would be a leader, you

Must shun the "drift alongs."

The American Boy.