Moral Ambition: Rutger Bregman on Building a Career That Makes a Difference

Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

We’ve been taught to chase fancy job titles and large salaries, but what if we aimed for moral ambition instead? In this week’s episode of Hello Monday, host Jessi Hempel sits down with historian and best-selling author Rutger Bregman to explore moral ambition: the idea that the core metric of a successful career should be the positive impact we have on the world.

Rutger’s new book, Moral Ambition: How to Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference, calls on all of us to rethink what we’re really working for. If you’ve ever felt like there should be more to your job than climbing the ladder, this conversation is for you.

Jessi and Rutger dive into:

• What moral ambition is—and why we need more of it
• Why “follow your passion” is the wrong advice
• How to shift from success-driven to service-driven work
• Why young professionals are funneled into finance and consulting
• The real-world heroes solving the world’s biggest problems
• How to build coalitions and collaborate for impact

This episode is a call to action for anyone who wants to do good—and do it well.

Join the conversation at Hello Monday Office Hours! We’ll be live on the LinkedIn News page this Wednesday at 3PM EST. Bring your questions and your curiosity; we’d love to hear what moral ambition looks like for you.