Your Time is Limited, So Don’t Waste It Living Someone Else’s Life A Quote by Steve Jobs free essay sample

â€Å"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. We will write a custom essay sample on Your Time is Limited, So Don’t Waste It Living Someone Else’s Life: A Quote by Steve Jobs or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † Here is how I interpret what Steve Jobs was saying: Don’t drink just to make your friends, partner or anyone else happy, because then you’re just living someone else’s life. Don’t go places your friends’ want you to just to please them, because then you’re living someone else’s life. Don’t act a certain way and do things just because your friends want you to just so they will accept and like you, because then you’re living someone else’s life. Don’t dress and value what your friends tell you how you should dress and what you should value, because then you are just living someone else’s life. When you do things in the hope of pleasing someone else, making them happy, you are living someone else’s life. This doesn’t mean that you live with total disregard or concern of others. If you’re married or in a committed relationship, you pay attention to your partner, you spend time together. You are flexible and do things to make your partner happy. If you have children, you spend time with them, teach them, educate them and grow together. If I was to go to a friend’s wedding I will dress appropriately wearing a nice dress. If I am hired by an employer or accept a job, I will do the job I am hired to do. If I say I’m going to do something then I do it, that isn’t living someone else’s life, that is being responsible. This quote is important for people to know, because doing what makes you happy is a much better way to go through life then doing what others think is right.

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buy custom Management Planning Tools essay Singapore Zoo lies with twenty eight hectares of land, in the Upper Selectar Reservoir. The reservoir lies within central catchment area, which is heavily forested. The zoo contains at least three hundred and fifteen animal species, and attracts more than 1.6 million visitors every year. The Zoo has always followed the modern pattern of displaying animals. The zoo displays animals in an open and naturalistic exhibit, having moats, barriers and glass between visitors and animals. The major activity at Singapore Zoo is viewing wildlife. The attractions include the Australian outback, which includes animals like Kangaroos, birds that can swallow metallic object and lizards having accessories around their necks. At the outback, visitors can encounter roos, grey kangaroos, dandy marsupials and agile wallabies skipping freely. there are rustic shed at the walkthrough sheds, showcasing a collection of educational interpretive and amazing reptiles. Another attraction is the critters longhous e, which houses curios critters, Goeldis monkeys, mousedeers, Kinkajous and leopard cats. at the cat country show, visitors come in close encounters with big cats like leopards, lions and the jaguar. In addition to this, Elephant of Asia is a show that recreationists can not fail to marvel at. It showcases the rich exotic Asian colors with the Asian elephants. The Singapore Zoo is also flashed up by the presence of the Orangutan Species and proboscis monkeys. there are educative information on these animals, that will leave the recreationist more knowledgeable on wildlife species, lifestyle and culture. Visitors also have the opportunity to experience Africa in the zoo, with the presence of Ethiopian baboon, the Hamadryas baboons, African lions, zebras, African wild dogs, Cheetahs, Giraffes, and White rhinos, all present at the wild Africa attractions. Because the zoo is a family recreation center, children have the opportunity to marvel too. Despite the above attractions, children can also experience the rainforest kidzworld which includes a variety of exhilarating activities. Rainforest contains educational and fun activities such as pony rides, horse carriages, and unique picturesque. Because the zoo attracts many visitors, the management is bound to face several issues relating to visits to the park. The major issue at the zoo is overcrowding. The park attracts many visitors that are sometimes beyond its carrying capacity. Over crowding causes many issues that both the management and visitors cannot ignore such as pressure on the available attractions and exceeding the carrying capacity. Over crowding also influences poor disposal of litter. It is difficult for visitors to allocate litter bins when people are crowded, which in turn influences visitors negligence and lack of responsibility towards disposing litter. Despite having litter bins, some visitors leave trash everywhere, which is a health hazard to the animals. Poor disposal of litter and trash may lead to the exposure of toxic substances to the air, leading to air pollution. Animals may swallow the litter, which contains a harmful substance such as pesticids and oil. In the long run, littering endangers the surrounding environment, as well as the stability of the park, especially the safety of animals. The management can use several approaches to manage these issues for the visitors benefit, as well as the benefit of the animals. In the planning and management approaches, Singapore Zoo management can utilize a number of available tools that make park and zoo management easy. These tools include the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC), Visitor Activity Management Process (VAMP), Visitor Impact Management (VIM) and Visitor Experience Resource Protection (VERP). Visitor Impact Management This management tool covers a variety of techniques and processes for supervising visitors, their impacts and their activities in specific areas (Buckley, 2004). Public and private organizations in the tourism sector use this tool for managing natural areas that require special protection. VIMs focus is on the visitor impacts on specific locations. This management tool, just like the visitor Activity Management tool, relies on specific methods for its application. The methods include education, track hardening, time mechanisms, behaviour management and other design led solutions. VIM processes recognizes the standards and indicators for mangers to obtain desired goals. the managers at Singapore Zoo would need to state the zoos goals, in order to utilize this tool. The goals can range on the type of resources, activities, and the recreationists. Therefore, if the goal of the zoo is to maintain the animals health or increase visitors per year, the management can utilize VIM to help the zoo achieve this goal. In this aspect, the tool resembles Limits of Acceptable Change, though its techniques are simpler than those of LAC, and were the first ones to be developed. VIMs techniques are more familiarized to respond to the perceptions of managers instead of the stakeholders. Additionally, it is easy to incorporate VIMs processes for participation models. As stated earlier, VIM is most applicable in protected areas management. Despite this, it is compulsory to apply formal frameworks to influence its positive performance. One of the frameworks is VAMP, which includes a variety of steps. The steps include; Setting objectives and terms of reference, data analysis and development of databases, developing an alternative to concepts f visitor activities, plan documentation and finally, implementation. These processes can extend to include other steps, especially in areas with broader analysis scales. The additional steps would include reviewing and identifying issues, indicator selection, resources inventory, indicator standards specification, iterative monitoring process and implementation, impact versus standards comparison, and management alternative identification. Visitor management is a key concept to the functioning of the Department of Conservation (DOC) strategy, as it fosters utilization of historic and natural recreational resources. The DOC visitor strategy allows the managgement of design the management process by seeking to identify values, assessing potential visitor impacts, responding and monitoring the impacts and developing an ideal management regime. The focus of the Doc is to develop a standard process, which identifies key visitor impacts, especially on the values of the location. to do this effectively, the strategy employs the help of other management agencies like Geographic Information Systems. The Visitor Impact Management (VIM) addresses problem conditions, management strategies and potential causal factors (Pigram , Jenkins, 2006). The tool employs the same methods to assess and identify the effects as well as the causes. VIM aids managers in providing information that helps them control or reduce undesirable behaviour from visitors. In addition to this, VIM also suggests several approaches to that construct a scientific understanding of visitors impacts, nature and causes. It looks at impact relationships, activity-specific influences, impacts to varying tolerance. Lastly, VIM provides a means of managing or decreasing impacts of undesirable recreational use. East Coast Park managers could use this strategy to prevent or reduce the impacts of littering. Because it provides alternatives to the carrying capacity concept, the managers could use it to plan on the parks; carrying capacity in order to prevent overcrowding. Application the zoos management could use this tool to ensure that over crowding does not affect allocation of recreational activities. The framework helps the management develop various options for services and activities for visitors, and provide advices on activity approval plan. The zoos management would use tis framework to plan and ensure that the number of visitors to the park at any point coincides with the number of available resources. VIM should always be linked to the objectives of the overall management site. Its analysis and investigation sites should recognize the cause of impacts in order to allow the set up of deeper research and monitoring framework. VIM provides a means of managing or decreasing impacts of undesirable recreational use. Singapore zoo managers could use this strategy to prevent or reduce the impacts of littering. Because it provides alternatives to the carrying capacity concept, the managers could use it to plan on the zoo carrying capacity in order to prevent o vercrowding. In the past, Visitor Management was based on the interpretations and perceptions of managers on the ground. In addition to this, agencys policies and legislation drove its operations. Presently, stakeholders involvement is possible for reviewing relevant objectives, selecting central monitoring standards and indicators and initiating input into related strategies for management. This stakeholder involvement is beneficial in instances where there are suitable indicators of unacceptable consequences. In this case, the input of the public is able to identify relevant stakeholder perceptions on specific issues. In this respect, traditional VIM was similar to the processes of LAC. a Buy custom Management Planning Tools essay

To What Extent Does a Director's Duty Under Section 175 Companies Act Essay

To What Extent Does a Director's Duty Under Section 175 Companies Act 2006 Continue Post-Resignation - Essay Example The Company Act 2006 brought up a statutory code of general duties of directors; this introduction was appearing in the UK’s Company law for the first time. The main purpose of this legislation was to enhance the general understanding of the legal duties of directors. The duties of the directors established in the Act are based on certain equitable principles and common law rules. The interpretation of the statutory duties in the future is required to be according to the development of those principles of case law.2 The director’s duties are not owed to the shareholders but rather to the company. The Act stipulates the duty of each director to include: a duty to foster company’s success as the director deems it in good faith; a duty for the director to avoid any conflicts of interest; a duty of non-acceptance of benefits such as secret commissions and bribes; a duty to act within the terms of powers granted under the constitution of the company; a duty to exercis e reasonable diligence, skill, and care; a duty to declare any interests in the company’s transactions; and a duty to effect independent judgment.3 . In addition, the Act incorporates expressly long-standing equitable doctrines in order to provide remedies for director’s breach of duties, as noted for example in the case of Boardman v Phipps.4 Of most interest in this discussion is section 175 of Companies Act 2006. In reference to section 175 Companies Act 2006, this discussion will consider the extent to which a director’s duty will continue post-resignation. In particular, section 175 of the Companies Act 2006 deals with the director’s duties concerning conflict of interest (actual and potential). The main rationale of this provision is to codify the subsisting principles of case law and to develop parallel principles to the existing ones. Section 175 (1) state that a company director must avoid situations in which he has, or can have, conflicts of int erest either directly or indirectly, or this interest and that of the company may conflict. Section 175 (2) provides that the duty to avoid conflicts of interest applies particularly to the exploitation of any opportunity, information, or property.5 However, section 175(3) provides that this duty shall not apply to conflicts of interest arising from an arrangement or transaction with the company. Additionally, section 175(4) states that this duty will not be considered infringed if: the directors have authorised the matter or the circumstances cannot be reasonable considered as giving rise to conflicts of interest. In section 175(5), the Act provides that the directors may give the authorisation in the following situations: where the company is a public constitution and the provision enabling authorisation by the directors is contained in its constitution, or where the company is a private company and its constitution does not validate authorisation of matter. Besides, section 175(6 ) states that authorisation can be effective if: agreement to the matter was made without voting or its agreement could have

Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada Research Paper - 2

Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada - Research Paper Example It deals with the issues concerning its organizational culture that encourages excellence by shielding itself from a nefarious effect of political influence which can negatively affect its organizational objectives of providing an efficient transport system for the region's population not only today but fifty years from now. It had adopted transparency in all its transactions with the publication of all relevant data and information on its Web site regarding its activities, agenda and future plans so that all the agency's community investments are maximized. The paper also gives a brief background on the dynamic region of southern Nevada and how the RTCSN plays an important part in its vital transformation. The agency is well managed as an empowered organization through its internal advocacy (like re-organization) and external advocacy (in cases like plans for transport systems such as building new roads) to minimize traffic congestion and future transport challenges. Introduction Th e region of southern Nevada includes the five counties of Clark, Esmeralda, Nye, Mineral, and Lincoln; this is incidentally also the region where the majority of the state's population live due to the rest of the state being an inhabitable desert. This region encompasses the Las Vegas Valley and the region is a major educational center of the area. Moreover, most of its economy is based on the tourism-related industries of gaming (gambling), leisure, vacation (senior retirees), hotel, hospitality, and travel. This means there is a lot of movement within this region, which is a reason for existence of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCSN) to regulate and plan all the transport-related concerns of this region with regards to this sudden population expansion due to the influx of tourists (both local and foreign), migrants (temporary workers seeking jobs, mostly in construction) and those potential retirees attracted by the warm climate, no state taxes and na ture attractions at Lake Tahoe. It is estimated Nevada entices some five million visitors annually with revenues of about US$ 6 billion (Leong, 2008, p. 2). Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is the agency mandated by state and federal governments for maintaining a continuing, cooperative and comprehensive (3C) transportation planning process. The RTCSN has been re-named (in 1981) as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for southern Nevada in view of its expanded responsibilities. This new agency has to operate using the same modern management tools used in all big corporations and is the subject or topic of this paper. Among other things, it has to operate within budgets, use organizational skills to attract the best-qualified people to its ranks and obtain the cooperation of the riding public to achieve its goals of efficiency and sustainability (RTCSN, 2012, p. 1). Discussion The RTCSN has to be operated like any private enterprise in order to maximize all the resources given to it and achieve its mission of sustainability such as maintaining the air quality through encouragement of Club Ride Commuter Services that promotes walking, biking, pooling of cars and vans, and in the use of the mass transit system, which it operates and carries about 64 million passengers per year.  

Organizational Theory Design and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organizational Theory Design and Change - Essay Example Supervisors and managers define the goals and hold meeting with the employees regarding the amount of effort and budget needed to accomplish those goals. The managers take care of every employee individually and listen to their problems. Dealing with customers with efficiency and skilfully is an important part of my workplace culture. All the employees share a set standard of rules and respect each other’s privacy. Their good behavior is not only a source of competitive advantage but also increases organizational effectiveness by enhancing its reputation in the market. The deadlines are met efficiently because the projects’ tasks are distributed among the team members properly. The best thing with my workplace culture is that the employees use technology based tools to communicate with each other and the supervisors, and also with the consumers and the stakeholders. This increases trust between all the parties. Hence, the overall culture at my organization is very frien dly, healthy and motivating which keeps the employees working hard enough to achieve the organizational goals and objectives, and increase productivity.

International Federation of Accountants Code of Ethics

International Federation of Accountants Code of Ethics Code of Ethics is essential for both accountants and auditors as they hold positions of expectation that the community rely on them and the capability. The Code of Ethics is regulated by International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) at international level. Due to the company failures such as Enron and Equitable life, ethical behavior and independence has become more important. The Enron case clearly demonstrates the value work of IFAC. (ACCA, 2002) Therefore, IFACs Code of Ethic is broadly defined as code of conduct based on a set of moral principles or values that indicates how an individual should behave. (Velayutham, 2003) Through this, if an auditor is incompetent, the parties to the contract will place little or no value on the service provided. (Messier et al., 2007).Furthermore, auditors are required to be independence to apply unbiased judgment and objective consideration to establish facts in giving an opinion. It is essential because the users expect the auditor to have an unbiased viewpoint when forming opinion on the true and fairness of the financial statement. If the auditors are not independence, then the value of audit is lost. (Gomes, 2010) [Online].It is vital to provide assurance services as it can increase confidence of users of the information and to avoid conflicts of interests that may occur towards the auditor. 2.0 Main report 2.1 Critically evaluate of the role of IFACs Code of Ethics for professional accountants in strengthening independence of auditors. Over these years, IFAC has been revising a newer Code of Ethics to clarify requirements for all professional accountants and to enhance the independence of auditor. (IFAC, 2009) [Online].This Code of Ethics are follow up and practiced by its members until it becomes a system in the organization.(Ravendran,2006) [Online]. Principles-based approach is remained in the revised Code of Ethic and it establishes a conceptual framework for professional accountants and external auditor to follow. This is to make sure they are compliance with fundamental principles of professional ethics. It is important for fundamental of principle to remain the same, as it would be more flexible for all professional accountants and the external auditors. (Ward, 2006) [Online] The IFAC Code of Ethic has constantly revised to meet the changing needs of the profession and the expectations of stakeholders in Malaysia. (MIA, 2006) [Online].Therefore IFAC Code of Ethic is set as a good example to follow because of its holistic approach that considers many aspects of the issue. (Gomes, 2009) [Online].External auditors to find out possible threats and evaluate how it could affect the audit are using conceptual framework. They have to apple safeguards on the identified threats to reduce them to an acceptable level. (MIA, 2006) [Online] Furthermore, auditors play an important role to provide a high-quality financial statement because any loss in carrying out their work will give a bad impact on investor protection and confidence. For example, many auditors failed to give their opinion leading to compromising the shareholders of public listed companies. (Izma, 2009) [Online] .As a result, independence of auditors is affected. In solving this kind of situation, auditors will need to follow the fundamental of principles to reduce this threat. (MIA, 2005) [Online] By applying a principle-based approach, it can also help to standardize the IFACs Code of Ethic globally. Through standardizing the international standards, the auditors will have high quality standards in auditing the financial statement. (Ward, 2006) [Online].If each country standardized the preparation of financial statements, making it flexible for cross-border securities listing globally. This will enable the company for a better flow of resources, using it systematically. (Kumar, Porwal, 2003) [Online] .Therefore opinion form by auditors will be more credible and reliable in ensuring auditors to be more independence. On the other hand, the behavior of a human cannot be justified by just following the IFACs Code of Ethic. This is because personal behavior cannot be control and it depends on how they want to behave. (MIA, 2006) [Online].For example lack of ethical code, especially one client may jeopardized another clients business due to the financial difficultly they faced.(Gomes, 2009) [Online] The reasons why auditors cannot control themselves, probably due to the characteristic of the auditors are self-centered, greedy and unprincipled, thus this will create a self- interest threat for the auditors.( Jackling et al., 2007) As such, it is not good to understand the principle only, the knowledge of ethical code need to be apply. (Gomes, 2010) [Online].If not independence of auditor will be influence and then nobody would be able to trust them just like Arthur Anderson. Due to the cases like Enron or WorldCom, which ended up as a fraud, IFACs has revised stronger ethical code and stringent rules that a company must follow. However, the revised IFACs Code of Ethic cannot be perfect all the time. Somehow, loopholes can be found, as it may not fully capture the culture, belief and practice the code and it will make auditors to be unable to enhance independence. (ACCA, 2009) and external auditors may not adapt to this standards as there are changes to the ethical code. It can also make mistakes as the environment is changing, so does the culture and the personality of the auditor as well. Therefore, without a proper guidance, certain parts of the organization may interpret the code differently and IFACs Code of Ethic cannot promise that very country or auditor may process the ethical code. For example as the culture in the world is changing so as the behavior of an auditor and for that auditor may do what they want, as the Code of Ethic is not included in the law system. In general, by maintaining the same code is not possible, as it has to change consistently. (Pflugrath et al., 2007) 2.2 Evaluate the important of maintaining principle-based approach in the Code of Ethics. Many corporation failures has shows the need of principle- based approach is essential. The suggested ways for IFACs Code of Ethic to strengthen the independence of auditors are by having a principle-based approach, as it is flexible and easy for the auditors and accountants to adapt. With a strong principle-based, this will enhance the auditor to perform a high quality standards of auditing in making decisions and the public would have more trust towards them (IFAC, 2009) [Online]. By having a principles- based approach, problems it maintaining will be reducibly and there are ways of resolving it. (MIA, 2008) [Online] Furthermore, the IFACs body has agreed that principle-based are better compared to rules-based approach as threats and safeguards better serves the public interest, which cannot provide for all circumstances. (Bagshaw, 2006) [Online].As such, the Code of Ethic has been revised in principles- based approach primarily to encourage auditors to make a high quality judgment(MIA, 2006) [Online]. Therefore, assurance is critical in making sure that their judgments are ethical enough as the auditors and accountants holds these responsibilities. (Haron.H et al., 2010) Other than that, a principles- based approach can adapt to the changes of the environment. This is because every country has a different culture and this culture will generally affect the behavior of that person. Therefore, with principle-based, it can minimize standards behavior for each auditor and accountant globally. (ACCA, 2009) and therefore it is important to maintain a principles-based in the IFACs Code of Ethic. Moreover, with the high quality of ethical code, auditors can make a good judgment and this will avoid them from having a financial scandal. (Ismail et al., 2010) Somehow, some aspects that may considered as a threat towards a principle-based approach. External auditors and professional accountants that are use to comply with rules- based in Code of Ethics find themselves in a difficulty to switch to principles- based. The most important concern is whether a purely principle-based approach is strong enough to deal with a complicated transactions.(Yong, 2004) [Online].Due to the different culture in every country International codes such as the IFACs Code cannot fully comply with basic principles and practice. (ACCA, 2009) The fact is that auditors and accountants will need to apply judgments according to the principles, which is impossible because Code of Ethic cannot include all situation and dilemmas and by applying judgments blindly, auditors independence are affected. (Gomes, 2009) [Online] Despite that, every now and then judgment are use to manipulate financial outcomes so a strong ethical behavior and commitment is required for the auditors to avoid temptations from resist client pressuring. (Yong, 2004)[Online] Besides that, the lack of clarity in principle-based approach as ethical code can perceive to be to technical jargon. As such auditors will have a difficult time to understand certain parts especially when the ethical code is translated, auditors finds themselves that the meaning become weaker thus auditors will find it hard to revise the Code of Ethics and because of this ethical code may not be widely used all over the world. (MIA, 2005) [Online] (ICAEW, 2006) [Online].Therefore every country needs to adjust to have a simpler Code of Ethics. 2.3 Recommendation In general, all companies differs from one and another in terms of functional operations, its legal systems, institutional base works and cultures, therefore it is critical that every organization must have good corporate governance for survival. Hence corporate governance is another way to enhance the independence of auditors besides having Code of Ethics. The objectives are to make sure that companys management is organized care and certain requirements that auditors and accountants must comply. Other than that, corporate governance systems are to make sure that threats to independence do not happen. (ICAEW, 2001) [Online] As audit committee are parts of the corporate governance, it is important for them to monitor the external auditors work by checking the financial report. By doing so, external auditors assurance will be improved. Besides this, audit committee can give some opinions to external auditor especially when problems occur. (ACCA, 2009).Therefore, with the help of audit committee, financial report would be more reliable. Moreover, audit committee can also review the timing and nature of reports as well as the findings of the external auditors. (ACCA, 2009) Hence, this will be able to enhance the independence of auditors Besides this, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is another good substitute besides Code of Ethics. This program is great to ensure auditors and accountants are updated with the market developments and changes affecting the accountancy profession and the auditors. Further, it helps the auditors to maintain and raise standards to professional judgments thus this will give auditors to be more up to date in the Guide of Professional Ethics. Through CPD, auditors will have the advantage to improve the capacity to exercise the highest standards of professional judgement. (ICAEW, 2010) [Online] CPD also provides information, support and guidance towards the auditor thus auditors are more confident in making a good decision without affecting the financial report. (ICAEW, 2010) [Online] By adopting this new approach, auditors will be able to follow up with current issue, which can affect their professional works, and to be committed in the job as they are responsible to the clients, stakeholders and the employers. (MIA, 2006) [Online].Finally, CPD will help them to be more knowledgeable and will enhance them to develop higher level of quality standards (MIA, 2007) [Online] 3.0 Conclusion Overall, it is important that IFACs Code of Ethics is revised every few years to make auditors and accountants are able to adapt with the changes made in the Code of Ethic. Ethical code is needed for the auditors and accountants as the public rely on them to perform the audit work efficient and effectively. Due to this, maintaining a principle-based is in need for every auditors and accountants as it is more flexible and thus it is globally used. However, there are still some negative aspects of ethical code, which auditor finds it difficult to comply with but somehow they manage to resolve it. As such, it is important that auditor and accountants knows when to apply the ethical code and not just understanding the principle only. Nevertheless, by having a good judgment, auditors will be able to make a good decision without getting influence. Therefore, with a strong ethical behaviour, auditors will be able to give a reliable and credible financial report and as a result, independence of auditors can be enhanced.Apart from this, it is essential, that every country will be able to adopt the IFACs Code of Ethics, as it will give high quality standards in the financial statement. Ethical Code cannot guarantee ethical behavior or resolve all dispute ethical behavior should result from a personal commitment to engage in ethical practice. Audit committee and CPD can also help to enhance the independence of auditors. Lastly, Ethical Code is an essential element of the surroundings in which auditors work and it is important that proper guidance to be given to them.

Pride in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe :: essays research papers

In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo, has a lot of pride. There is a well-known aphorism, ?Pride goes before a fall.? Through Okonkwo?s hard work, he became a great man, with a sense of pride and haughtiness. He then suffered a loss of pride, which ultimately led to his down fall and even his suicide. So, through Okonkwo?s actions, Achebe suggests that excessive pride can lead to down fall. For my first point, I am going to start with a joke: ?One day there was an airplane flying Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill (a kid), and Billy Gram. Something went wrong with the plane, and so it had to be abandoned. The pilot strapped on a parachute and said to the passengers, ?There are only four parachutes, and I am taking one.? Bill Clinton grabbed the second and said, ?I am the most important man, and my country needs me, so I am taking one, too.? Then, Bill Gates grabbed the third one and said, ?I am the smartest man in the world, and my people need me.? After Bill Gates left, Bill (the kid) was just looking at the last parachute, when Billy Gram said, ?I am old and you are young, and you have your whole life ahead of you, so take the last parachute.? After a little while, Bill looked up at Billy Gram and said, ?I was not thinking about that, it is just that the smartest man took my back pack.? As you saw from the joke and the book, both Okonkwo and Bill Gates were full of prejud ice pride. Both thought they were great men, and saw others as inferior compared to them. But their pride led to their destruction. Second, Okonkwo?s pride was greatly bruised while attending a great warrior?s funeral, named Ezeudu. It was when ?Darkness was around the corner? (page 124), when Okonkwo?s life took a sharp turn down hill. ?Guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the center of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the center of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man?s sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father.