Still Ambitious: How to Succeed Without Losing Yourself

At twenty-nine he had everything he'd worked for, and thirty shots of espresso a day to get through it. Todd Perelmuter was a creative director at one of the world's largest advertising agencies, living in a Manhattan high-rise. He also had chronic back pain, anxiety, depression, and an addiction to nearly everything within reach. By every measure he accepted at the time, he was winning. Then a cowboy in Arizona read him in four seconds, and eighteen months later he handed in his notice. Over the next decade he studied with gurus, shamans, monks and tribal communities across five continents. He came home and rebuilt. Then, in the first weeks of 2020, he lost every dollar he had saved in a matter of days - and finally found out whether any of it had worked. Still Ambitious is not a book about giving things up. It's the case that peace and ambition were never opposites - that they are one skill, not two competing ones, and that it pays in both currencies. Inside: - Why the calmest person in the room is usually the most effective one - The difference between confidence and ego, and how to tell which one you're running in real time - What actually produces good ideas, and why the walk matters more than the desk - How to face a fear without feeding it - What to do when your own steadiness is costing someone else - A daily practice that takes twenty minutes For the person who is doing well and quietly coming apart. For the founder who has read the books and still can't put the phone down. And for anyone who has found real peace and is afraid that wanting more would undo it. You don't have to choose. You do have to stop running them as two separate projects. Todd Perelmuter is the founder of EastWesticism and the author of Aloneness to Oneness and 10,000 Mental Steps. In 2026 he ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand.