In How to Get Rich, Felix Dennis makes the case that unless your demons are driving you to get rich, you should probably not try it. He writes, “Whether the sacrifices involved – not only your own, but those you will ask of your family, present or future – are worth the tyranny that such ambition, by its very nature, exacts.”

This isn’t just true of getting rich, and can be applied to anyone seriously chasing down any ambition. A chef chasing Michelin stars. An author chasing the New York Times bestseller list. A recording artist chasing the Grammy. The list goes on. 

Now that you know what it might take—that you will be asking the people you love most to suffer, hopefully in small ways, but sometimes big ones too—are you still willing to do it?

If you’re not, then it helps to focus the ambition to something more simple:

Get specific about your customers, and make the best products for them. Allow the awards to come if they may—and they may!—but not at the cost of anything else that’s truly valuable in your life.

You may not get rich—or gain the wide recognition that the rich and award winners do—but you’ll still have a good shot at feeding the relationships, people, and purpose that is most important to you.