What's an 'ambition monster'?

Jenn Romolini and I are kindred spirits across the pond. In 2016/2017, we both wrote a memoir/guide about our respective online careers and how to navigate a world when you feel slightly ‘different’ to everyone else around you who seems to follow the sensible path. Mine was called Ctrl Alt Delete: How I Grew Up Online and hers was called Weird in a World That’s Not. Cut to now, all these years on, we released similar books around the same time again. I wrote The Success Myth all about how jaded and confused I felt when outside success didn’t match up with how I felt on the inside; and Jenn wrote Ambition Monster, a forensic memoir that deep-dives into her childhood trauma and how this turned into a life of hamster-wheel workaholism. The memoir is fast-paced, wise, vulnerable, gritty, retrospective and funny. It also has moments that feel spiritual and full of satisfying epiphanies— it is a woman awakening, and it is a wake up call to the reader. Our work and life experiences are, of course, very different on paper — but I always felt like we were tapped into the same sort of themes, albeit living totally different lives in London and LA.

I’m thrilled that I got to sit down for a chat with Jenn for this podcast, and I got to spend time with her in New York too. I hope you enjoy this episode and grab a copy of the book, too! xoxo