Skip to main content

Leadership Quote by Imran Khan

"I wanted to be an outstanding player, that was my ambition"

About this Quote

Ambition is doing double duty here: it sounds like a sportsman talking about form and fitness, but it’s really a self-authored origin story about legitimacy. Imran Khan frames his drive in the clean, measurable language of performance - “outstanding player” - a phrase that carries the moral clarity of scoreboards. You either deliver or you don’t. That simplicity is the point. In a political culture where motives are endlessly litigated, he reaches back to a time when his worth could be publicly verified, then imports that credibility into civic life.

The line also sidesteps entitlement. He doesn’t say he wanted to be famous, rich, or adored; he wanted to be outstanding. It’s aspirational, but it’s also disciplinary. The subtext is work: ambition as a private engine, not a public demand. That matters for Khan, whose persona has long leaned on the idea of earned status - the athlete who conquered the field, the philanthropist who built institutions, the outsider who claims he didn’t inherit power so much as qualify for it.

Context sharpens the edge. Khan’s cricket career, capped by the 1992 World Cup victory, became a national myth of redemption and grit; later, as a politician, he translated that myth into a promise to “fix” a system he portrayed as complacent and corrupt. This brief sentence distills the bridge between those worlds: the same hunger that made him exceptional in sport is offered as evidence he can be exceptional in governance. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s a credentialing strategy.

Quote Details

TopicSports
SourceHelp us find the source
More Quotes by Imran Add to List
Imran Khan Quote on Ambition to Be Outstanding
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Imran Khan

Imran Khan (born November 25, 1952) is a Politician from Pakistan.

30 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Franco Harris, Athlete
Emerson Fittipaldi, Celebrity
Sessue Hayakawa, Actor
George Harrison, Musician
George Harrison