ambition vs break one's neck

ambition

verb
  • To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. 

noun
  • Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people. 

  • An object of an ardent desire. 

  • A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal. 

  • A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things. 

break one's neck

verb
  • To make extraordinary efforts to achieve an end; to exert oneself in pursuit of a goal. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, neck. 

How often have the words ambition and break one's neck occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )