In his latest book, Moral Ambition, Bregman calls on entrepreneurs, professionals, and young people to stop spending their careers solving problems that don’t really exist.
“There’s a famous quote from someone who worked at Facebook who said, ‘The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click on ads.’ And that is pretty sad,” he said.
The book is not your typical self-help guide. “If you want to read a book that will make you more relaxed or more mindful or happy or whatever, then you should probably not read my book,” Bregman said. “There are thousands of self-help books that will teach you how to do less, but this is a book about how you can do much more.”
He believes history has always been shaped by small, committed groups, people who dared to challenge the status quo. “In the 18th century, a small group of entrepreneurs and businessmen in the UK started the fight against slavery. It was deeply unpopular at the time, but they helped end what was the greatest moral atrocity of their time.”
According to Bregman, too many highly skilled professionals today feel that their jobs are socially meaningless. “There’s a huge waste of talent going on,” he said. “If you are very talented, if you have a little bit of ambition, then you should use that to make the world a wildly better place.”
That’s the essence of what he calls moral ambition—a combination of activist idealism and entrepreneurial drive. His book argues that people should not settle for the conventional path of job security and early retirement if it leaves them feeling unfulfilled. “What are you going to think about when you lie on your deathbed? About all the PowerPoints you didn’t see or the impact you made?”
The book begins with a stark message: “No, you’re not fine just the way you are.” Bregman said too many people are climbing the ladder of success only to find it’s leaning against the wrong wall. “There are a lot of big problems out there—poverty, preventable diseases, climate change—and too few people working on them.”
To help people get started, he offered a simple framework—SSS: focus on problems that are Sizable, Solvable, and Sorely Neglected. He explained, “If you go and work on issues that everyone else is already working on, then you’re not going to make the biggest impact.”
Bregman co-founded the School for Moral Ambition to help professionals pivot toward causes that really matter. He believes that people don’t need to choose between making money and doing good—but they do need to ask the harder questions. “You’ve got to be able and willing to do the unpopular or the unsexy things.”
Below are the excerpts of the interview.
Q: One of the lines that the book begins with is, “No, you’re not fine just the way you are. People may spend their whole lives climbing up the ladder of success, only to find once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.” Why did you feel it is important to shake up your readers and their thinking and approach toward work and professional life?
Bregman: Well, my reasoning is pretty simple. In the first place, we have a lot of very big global problems. Around 15,000 kids die from easily preventable diseases every day. 85% of the world population is below the poverty line of the country in which I live, the Netherlands. We have the threat of the next pandemic that may be just around the corner. There’s war, there’s democratic backsliding. You know, there are a lot of things we’ve got to do something about.
But then the second thing is that a lot of people are currently stuck in jobs that don’t really add all that much value. And I’m not talking about teachers or nurses or care workers. I’m talking about people who often went to great universities, who have beautiful résumés, who may be marketers or bankers or corporate lawyers or whatever, and still, at the end of the day, they have the feeling that they don’t really contribute all that much.
There’s one big study that showed that around 25% of people in developed economies even think that their own job is socially meaningless. So, there’s a huge waste of talent going on. And my book is basically a call to arms. It says that if you are very talented, if you have a little bit of ambition, then you should use that to make the world a wildly better place. And I call that moral ambition. It’s the combination of the idealism of an activist and the ambition of an entrepreneur. When those two things come together, something really magical starts to happen.
Q: But at what stage and at what point should people start thinking about this? Because the common line that we hear when someone talks about changing the world or launching a political party or working toward a social cause is that you can’t change the world, or it’s better to stick to the beaten path- have a work life, have a work-life balance, earn a good enough amount of money for your family, for your holidays, so that you can retire well and early. Nothing wrong with it. But perhaps, according to your book, one wouldn’t be very satisfied with this way of living. How does one come to the conclusion that you’re cut out for making a difference to the world, for leaving an impact, and where do you really start?
Bregman: Well, history is littered with examples of small groups of really thoughtful, committed citizens who made a massive difference in the fight against some of the greatest problems we face as a species. In the book, I talk, for example, about the abolitionists, those who took up the fight against the slave trade and against slavery. And you’ve got to remember that in the 18th century, in a country like the United Kingdom, for example, this was really, really unpopular.
The United Kingdom was making an enormous amount of money on the slave trade and on slavery and on having this whole system of colonies. But then there was a small group of mostly entrepreneurs and businessmen who said, “This is the greatest moral atrocity of our time. We should kick-start a movement against this.” So, it is really small groups of really committed people that can make a difference. History shows us this, and I’ve tried to write a sort of self-help book, a guide that people can use if they also want to follow that path.
Now, I’ve got to say, if you want to read a book that will make you more relaxed or more mindful or happy or whatever, then you should probably not read my book. There are thousands of self-help books that will teach you how to do less, but this is a book about how you can do much more and how you can really leave your mark on history.
Q: You speak about what startup founders, young entrepreneurs can also do. Your book also argues, and you’ve said this, that a lot of times we are launching companies or launching solutions to problems we never really knew we had, or it’s probably too simplistic. So, what is the kind of mindset or moral ambition that young entrepreneurs need to have?
Bregman: We’ve got to realise that ambition is just raw energy. It can fuel a rocket that goes to Mars, but it can also fuel a bulldozer that waltzes over a rainforest. So, it’s just energy, and what really matters is how you use it.
What I currently see is that there are a lot of young entrepreneurs starting new companies that create these products that are perhaps, in the best-case scenario, okay, but in the worst-case scenario, are actively harmful. There’s a famous quote from someone who worked at Facebook for a long time, who said that the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click on ads. And that is pretty sad, isn’t it? You have all these really smart people who could technically do an enormous amount of good.
In a country like India in particular, if you would take up the fight against some of the greatest health problems, just imagine how many lives you could save. It’s honestly extraordinary. So, it’s always a little bit sad to me when those very, very talented people spend so many hours on something that doesn’t actually matter all that much. Maybe you can make a lot of money with it, but in the end, what are you going to think about when you lie on your deathbed? About all the PowerPoints from colleagues that you didn’t see, about all the long meetings you didn’t attend, or about the actual impact you made? That, I think, is what really counts in the end.
Q: How would you define moral ambition today? Of course, when you hear the term, you immediately think about doing something good for society, but according to you, what would be the four main ingredients of moral ambition that youngsters, entrepreneurs, industry veterans, and CEOs can keep in mind?
Bregman: So, I co-founded an organisation called the School for Moral Ambition that helps as many talented people as possible pivot their careers and use their resources, whether it’s their talent, their capital, or their network, to make the biggest possible difference.
We use a simple framework to help people focus on those biggest problems. It’s called the SSS framework. So, we focus on problems that are really sizable, they’re very big, solvable, you’ve got to have some plan of what to do about them, and most importantly, they’re also sorely neglected.
If you go and work on issues that everyone else is already working on, then you’re not going to make the biggest impact. For example, I’m someone who grew up in a rich country, in the Netherlands, in northern Europe. If I want to help as many people as possible and improve their health, then probably focusing just on the Netherlands, where we already spend a huge amount on healthcare, is not going to make the biggest possible difference.
If I shift my focus to something like malaria, for example, 6,00,000 people die from malaria every single year, mostly kids under five, well, then I can suddenly do much more good, right? Because it is so neglected. So, if you’re really morally ambitious, you’ve got to dare to go where others don’t go. You’ve got to be able and willing to do the unpopular or the unsexy things.
Watch accompanying video for entire conversation.
