It seems like her problem was more a constant fear of failure and lack of acceptance, which reared its head to varying degrees over her career. That lack of ambition seems to have blossomed out of the realization that she'd sort of screwed herself over through the fear and self doubt. "Stopping working hard and being unambitions" wasn't the cause, it was the symptom.
The takeaway from this article, for me, was that you can kill your own career by doubting yourself, by not putting yourself out there actively and promoting yourself. Your own fear can close doors that will eventually kill your drive. That's not a foreign idea to me -- slowly recessing into a corner when I ran into something too foreign, or frightening, to easily comprehend and master has led to my engagement dropping off the map and to my becoming mediocre at something I should be excelling at. I've since gotten over that to a large degree (though sometimes "solving" that requires me to put on a false front and be confident and engaging with people I would otherwise avoid or shy away from) but I look back at past jobs I've had that I wish I had done better in, and the roots of my problems and hers ring as related in my head. (Even though I have never "slacked off" to learn an instrument, have babies, or be female.)
Sidenote: I don't know if you intended it or not but your post reads with a pretty contemptuous tone, which I don't think is needed. I think both "tl;dr"s in this thread are slightly offensive, but yours is more offensive. People racking up karma points via a summary always bugs me, regardless, but when its an opinion couched in a summary it's twice as frustrating.
The takeaway from this article, for me, was that you can kill your own career by doubting yourself, by not putting yourself out there actively and promoting yourself. Your own fear can close doors that will eventually kill your drive. That's not a foreign idea to me -- slowly recessing into a corner when I ran into something too foreign, or frightening, to easily comprehend and master has led to my engagement dropping off the map and to my becoming mediocre at something I should be excelling at. I've since gotten over that to a large degree (though sometimes "solving" that requires me to put on a false front and be confident and engaging with people I would otherwise avoid or shy away from) but I look back at past jobs I've had that I wish I had done better in, and the roots of my problems and hers ring as related in my head. (Even though I have never "slacked off" to learn an instrument, have babies, or be female.)
Sidenote: I don't know if you intended it or not but your post reads with a pretty contemptuous tone, which I don't think is needed. I think both "tl;dr"s in this thread are slightly offensive, but yours is more offensive. People racking up karma points via a summary always bugs me, regardless, but when its an opinion couched in a summary it's twice as frustrating.