Moral Ambition : Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference

Author: Bregman, Rutger

Ethics & moral philosophy

Published on 24 April 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in the United Kingdom.

‘The rare read that might actually help you become a better person’ ADAM GRANT‘A fierce and brilliant call to arms for anyone who has been wondering whether there's more to life. (There is.)’ TIM HARFORD‘Gives us hope, humour and guidance at a time when all are in short supply’ TIMOTHY SNYDER‘Clear, brave, important and provocative’ RORY STEWARTTHE ANTIDOTE TO APATHY FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RUTGER BREGMANEvery day we’re bombarded with methods, mantras and life-hacks that promise us mindfulness, prosperity and wellness. We read countless self-help books to unlock the seven habits, twelve rules or one big secret to living a long and happy life, while time and talent remain some of our most squandered resources. The average full-time worker will spend 80,000 hours at their job: are you making the most of them? Do you truly believe in what you do, day in day out?Maybe you want to do something else with your limited time on the planet. Maybe your own happiness isn’t your only life goal, or you don’t want to get to your deathbed with the gnawing feeling you had much more in you. In that case, you’ll need a different kind of book.

Internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman shows us that with moral ambition – the will to make the world a wildly better place – it is possible to be both idealistic and successful, and to change the world along the way. Looking to the great change-makers of history, he uncovers the qualities that made them so persuasive, influential and effective, and shows how we, too, can lend our talents to the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to gross inequality to the next pandemic. With moral ambition, we can do more than be on the right side of history: we can make history itself.

This is not a self-help book. It won’t make your life easier – but it should make it more meaningful. The question is: what will you do with it?