I hope you business women are enjoying the holiday weekend! I’ve been taking a much-needed mental vacation from work, but I wanted to post a quote that really resonated me when I first read it in Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. I have it written down on an index card and posted next to some other quotes on productivity and other work-related things.

While I believe ambition is never a bad thing, it’s easy for me to go overboard, overwork myself, and lose sight of the big picture. This quote serves as a reminder:

“When ambition is your god, the office is your temple, and the employee handbook is your holy book. The sacred drink, coffee, is imbibed five times a day. When you worship ambition, there is no sabbath, no day of rest. Every day you rise early and kneel before the God Ambition, facing in the direction of your PC. You pray alone, always alone, even though others may be present.

“Ambition is a vengeful god. He will smite those who fail to worship faithfully, but that is nothing compared to what he has in store for the faithful. They suffer the worst fate of all. For it is only when they were old and tired, entombed in the corner office, that the realization hits like a biblical thunderclap. The God Ambition is a false god and always has been.”