A few days back, I attended the FMM SMI Conference 2026, where the theme was “Road to RM100 Million Revenue”.
Many of the participants were second-generation business owners who had taken over their family businesses.
One of the recurring questions, in line with the conference theme, was whether they had the ambition to grow their companies to RM100 million in revenue.
And that got me thinking…. how do we actually measure ambition?
If someone inherits a RM20 million business and wants to grow it to RM100 million, we call it ambitious.
But if someone inherits the same business and wants to keep it profitable, take good care of their employees and still have time for their family, does that make them less ambitious?
We tend to associate ambition with wanting more – more money, more power, more achievements!
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to build a RM100 million business. But there’s also noting wrong with deciding that RM20 million is enough.
Growth comes with trade-offs. More responsibilities + More risks = More sacrifices.
Not everybody wants to make those sacrifices, and that’s okay too.
After all, ambition and happiness aren’t necessarily the same thing. 💀
xoxoxo, AuntyHR
