Pride leading to the downfall of men

 Barings Bank must be very foreign to everyone here, this bank is no longer existing. It was founded in 1762 with over two hundred years of history before its downfall in 1995, all because of the pride of a single man, Nick Leeson. 

Is Nick Leeson the head of the bank? No, he is definitely not. He was a trader of the bank stationed in Singapore before he went rogue.

Nick was ambitious, he first worked for Stanley Morgen on the trading floor and in time he was filled with the ambition of becoming a trader. His application was rejected by his superior.

He found a breakthrough and landed the post in Barings Bank. He was determined to be successful, as a result he started to break the rules set by the bank, cutting corners, hiding losses and falsifying reporting. 

Since he stationed in Singapore, far from the eyes and nose of his headquarter, he not only managed to hide his losses in guise of gains, he convinced his headquarter to finance the margin calls of losing trades claiming those were meant for investment portfolio of new customers.

He did not learn his lesson when he was saved from the market turn-around.  He went bolder believing that he held the secret to success, he thought that he could win over the market. By now he was the star trader of the organization as he demonstrated huge profit from the trade.

History repeats itself, he was again amassing huge losses, implementing the same deception to convincing the company to finance his margin call. Unfortunately, he was out of luck this time, Japan was met with a huge earthquake and that caused the market to plummet.

Instead of reporting his losses, he doubled down convinced that the market would go his way, it did not.

When everything come to light, the losses he has accumulated amounted to GBP800 Million. It was too much for the bank to bare, it was also too great for UK to save. The bank declared bankrupt.

What of Nick Leeson? He maintained his innocent and blamed everything else including the bank system, his superior and inexperience auditors. Never once did he take responsibility for his action.

It is right to be ambitious, it is right to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. But what makes a different to the outcome is a person's believes and values. In general, we are taught to be ethical and law abiding, we are taught to follow the rules as our actions affect others.

However, pride blinds a person as he will put his needs over others.  He will justify the means with the grandiose outcome. He will not take ownership of consequences as he cannot be wrong and therefore always the fault of others when things are stacked against him. 

Unfortunately, Nick Leeson is not the last, he is not the only one and certainly not the last. Pride exists in everyone, it is a coping mechanism to protect our ego. What is ego? It is a term that describe control of self. A threat on control of self leads to insecurity and pride is one of the many "qualities" in man to regain his sense of security.

It is also interesting that pride grow stronger higher up in the hierarchy due to a stronger sense of insecurity. 

Fast forward till today, we are witnessing a stronger sense of insecurity in one of our world leaders. 

After collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was in shamble, he stepped forward with the goal of re-instating the past glory of Russia. To maintain a secure platform for his plan, he rules the country with autocracy, removing potential threat and maintaining a strict rule over media, so that the people only hear what he wants them to hear.

Externally, he rebuilds the country using the rich resources of natural gas and oil, in the process leveraging Russia's position in the world arena, making other countries fearful of retaliation to confront his action. 

In the end, he is surrounded by those who would only agree with him, in the process boosting his ego with falsehood.

He further establishes his image as a fighter with involvement of Russia on the battlefield such as his support for the Syria president, stamping the rebellion in Chechia and few other pseudo countries under the control of Russia, as well as invasion of Ukraine, thereby expanding the map of Russia.

His ego has never been so high, letting him think that he can get away in any atrocities. 

By the beginning of this year, he has decided to further expand the territory of Russia again at the expense of Ukraine through special military exercise. 

His original intention was to devour Luhansk and Donetsk. But his huge ego got the better of him, " why not just take the whole Ukraine? it was originally part of Russia after all."

He did not expect a strong resistance from Ukraine, he underestimated the fighting spirit of the comedian president and his people. This time, he has the people of a whole country raised against him.

7 months into the conflict, we witness a continual failure of the Russian army, first to conquer Ukraine and now on continuous retreat. 

Yet, his pride continues to tell him that it is possible for him to turn this around, he hid the news of battle losses and the serious annihilation of his troops to his people, in guise of tactical maneuver and repositioning. 

As the war drags on, he knows that he is losing, at the same time his pride maintains the possibility of a turn around. He annexes 4 regions in Ukraine as part of Russia in hope that this will stop the Ukrainian attacks fearing retaliation of nuclear option. He falsifies the purpose of 300,000 troop replacement claiming their purpose is to secure the annexed region. 

It did not stop the Ukrainians' advancement, and his people are aware of the development at the frontline, they are leaving the country in mass.

Unfortunately, his pride is too strong for him to admit defeat even at this point. I am sure that he is sitting right in front of his nuclear activation, with fingers toying around that red button. 

He is angry of the west; they should be fearful of him, yet they supply ammunition to Ukraine to fight against him. 

He is angry at the Ukraine president and his people; they are no body and should only be a subject for his disposal.

He is angry at those generals who turn out to be useless and corrupt, causing the massive defeat due to their incompetence. 

He is angry with Russians; they desert him in a time when he needs their sacrifice.

He needs to win, because that is the only thing that matters to him. 

I am sure he is very tempted to press that button, because it will create real fear to the world, and they will have to bow to him, turn the situation around and eventually bring back control.