Ambition should come with a list of things you won’t do to get there. Write that list too.

Limits decided in advance are the only ones that hold. In the moment, with the opportunity sitting there and a reason attached, almost anything can sound sensible, which is why the decision has to be taken while nothing is at stake. The list is not a sign of weak ambition. It is what keeps the ambition from costing more than it buys.

So write it, four or five lines, specific to your world. Who you will not lie to, what you will not claim, whose work you will not pass off as your own. Then it is a decision made once rather than a question you face while tired.