This is very far fetched armchair psychology but people driven _THAT_ incredibly much are usually not fueled by positive energy (alone). Together with the almost compulsive comparing to other people, sounds a lot like coping mechanisms for an inferiority complex or worse. OP should consider some therapy to learn about why he is so focused on comparing to others and why he is so hell-bent on work.
The key thing is that his ambition is not to achieve something, it's to "be the top 1%".
His ambition is all about being better than others.
Healthy ambition is an ambition to create something beautiful, to help people, to deliver the total solution, to live up to your own standards and values.
Unhealthy ambition is to dominate other, to be superior, to make the most money, to look the best, to constantly compare yourself to others.
People who constantly compare themselves to others usually do have inferiority complexes.
This is an interesting question... I would say yes it is possible, there can surely be other motivators why you might work very hard.
In this case, I just got the feeling from reading his posts that OP has a very VERY strong bias towards comparing and measuring up to other people; and he is extremely focused on success and achievements in what feels to me like an unnaturally extreme way. Quite a few of his posts focus on nothing but that and all together just feels unhealthy and un-natural to me. That's the distinction I see to "just" being VERY motivated vs. being "driven". Being a work-a-holic by definition is an unhealthy behavior and there could be a whole bunch of reasons why people slip into that.
Like I said, it is nothing but armchair psychology - but the possibility that certain psychological issues could actually end up benefitting your career or success (or even success with women) is pretty much undisputed. Not all flight mechanisms or addictions have to be to very obvious substances. Work and success and being praised can be very powerful and toxic.
