Requirements to be a US Senator

Requirements to be a U.S. Senator are established in Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.  The Senate is the United States higher legislative chamber (the House of Representatives being the lower chamber), containing 100 members. If you have dreams of becoming one of the two senators who represent each state for six-year terms, you might want to check the Constitution first. The guiding document for our government specifically spells out the requirements to be a senator. Individuals must be: At least 30 years oldA U.S. citizen for at least nine years at the time of election to the SenateA resident of the state one is elected to represent in the Senate Similar to those for being a U.S. Representative, the Constitutional requirements for being a Senator focus on age, U.S. citizenship, and residency. In addition, the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any person who has taken any federal or state oath swearing to support the Constitution, but later took part in a rebellion or otherwise aided any enemy of the U.S. from serving in the House or Senate. These are the only requirements for the office that are specified in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, which reads, No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. Unlike U.S. Representatives, who represent the people of specific geographic districts within their states, U.S. Senators represent all of the people in their states. Senate vs. House Requirements Why are these requirements for serving in the Senate more restrictive than those for serving the House of Representatives? In the 1787 Constitutional Convention, delegates looked to British law in setting age, citizenship, and residency or â€Å"inhabitancy† qualifications for senators and representatives, but voted not to adopt proposed religion and property ownership requirements. Age The delegates debated the minimum age for senators after they had set the age for representatives at 25. Without debate, the delegates voted to set the minimum age for senators at 30. James Madison justified the higher age in Federalist No. 62, stating the due to the more impactful nature of the â€Å"senatorial trust,† a â€Å"greater extent of information and stability of character,† was needed for senators than for representatives. Interestingly, English law at the time set the minimum age for members of the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament, at 21, and at 25 for members of the upper house, the House of Lords. Citizenship English law in 1787 strictly prohibited any person not born in â€Å"the kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland† from serving in either chamber of Parliament. While some delegates might have favored such a blanket ban for the U.S. Congress, none of them proposed it. An early proposal by Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania included a 14-year U.S. citizenship requirement for senators. However, the delegation voted against Morris’ proposal, voting instead for the current 9-year period, two years longer than the 7-year minimum they had earlier adopted for the House of Representatives. Notes from the convention indicate that the delegates considered the 9-year requirement to be a compromise â€Å"between a total exclusion of adopted citizens† and an â€Å"indiscriminate and hasty admission of them.† Residency Recognizing the fact that many American citizens may have lived abroad for some time, the delegates felt a minimum U.S. residency, or â€Å"inhabitancy† requirement should apply to the members of Congress. While England’ Parliament had repealed such residency rules in 1774, none of the delegates spoke for such rules for Congress. As a result, the delegates voted to require that members of the both the House and Senate be inhabitants of the states from which they were elected but placed no minimum time periods limits on the requirement. Phaedra Trethan is a freelance writer and a former copy editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. Updated by Robert Longley

Compare and Contrast Brutus and Macbeth - 1485 Words

Brutus vs. Macbeth through Power, Ambition, and Honor â€Å"Absolute power corrupts absolutely,† unless one knows how to use it, it shall not corrupt. Everyone has ambitions, a strong desire of achieving great things, and some will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. Honor is a title one receives through their noble acts; but some honorable and strongly ambitious people may go as far as to give up their noble title to accomplish their purpose. William Shakespeare is a well-known English poet and playwright, a big participant in creating the English language. Among his twelve tragedies, two has very similar plot and tragic heroes. The play Julius Caesar is about a noble, honorable, and trusted man named Brutus, who killed his friend and†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"It must be by his death; and for my part,/ I know no personal cause to spurn at him,/ but for the general.† (Julius Caesar, II.i.10-12). Brutus has no other reason to kill Caesar than for the gr eater good of Rome, whereas Macbeth killed more than three people for his own benefit. Macbeth first kills Duncan to become king; then Banquo and his son to make sure that they shall not be kings, but unfortunately for him, Fleance escaped; and finally Macduff’s family, though he was mainly aiming for Macduff himself. The heroes’ ambitious deed also led them to lose everything. Aforementioned, Brutus only killed Caesar for the good of Rome. However, in allowing Mark Anthony to speak at Caesar’s funeral, Brutus made himself and the conspirators the most hated people in Rome. To have the citizens despise him was not what Brutus had planned, therefore he has lost half of what he had—admiration from the people, the meaning of his life. To make matters worse, Portia, Brutus’s noble wife, killed herself by swallowing coal. It is not known if Brutus had other family members, therefore it can safely be concluded that he had lost everything, his fame and wi fe. Macbeth falls in a similar matter, first losing his friend and relative Duncan; then his comrade in the field, Banquo; his wife; and most importantly himself. For killing countless people, Macbeth’s guilt slowly builds in him, and at his end, was exposed in theShow MoreRelatedCompare and Contrast Between Shakesperean Tragic Heroes1386 Words   |  6 PagesCompare and Contrast Essay Shakespeare Tragic Heroes: Macbeth and Brutus Kyla Yu English 11 August 4th, 2008 William Shakespeare is a world renowned English poet and playwright famous for many tragic plays such as Macbeth and Julius Caesar. These two plays both contain tragic heroes with Marcus Brutus from Julius Caesar, and Macbeth from Macbeth. A tragic hero is defined as a protagonist of high standing with heroic or potential heroic abilities who must oppose some external or internalRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare and Macbeth8813 Words   |  36 Pageshero was to be pitied in his fallen plight but not necessarily forgiven: Greek tragedy frequently has a bleak outcome. Christian drama, on the other hand, always offers a ray of hope; hence,  Macbeth  ends with the coronation of  Malcolm, a new leader who exhibits all the correct virtues for a king. Macbeth  exhibits elements that reflect the greatest Christian tragedy of all: the Fall of Man. In the Genesis story, it is the weakness of Adam, persuaded by his wife (who has in turn been seduced byRead MoreEssay Prompts4057 Words   |  17 PagesYou may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of comparable quality. Avoid mere plot summary. An American Tragedy Light in August Anna Karenina Long Day’s Journey into the Night Antigone Lord Jim Beloved Macbeth Crime and Punishment Medea Death of a Salesman Moby-Dick Ethan Frome Oedipus Rex Faust Phedre Fences Ragtime For Whom the Bell Tolls Sent for You Yesterday Frankenstein Tess of the D’Urbervilles Hedda Gabler Read MoreStudy Guide Literary Terms7657 Words   |  31 Pagesthe dominant mood or emotional tone of a work of art, as of a play or novel: the chilly atmosphere of a ghost story. 13. antithesis- opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction. *Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater *Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 14. Anecdote A very short tale told by a character in a

The Environment, what are the issues Free Essays

It is a fair assessment to say that as a race we humans have not really cared for our environment as well as we could have. As a world we face some major changes to the environment, which can be looked at in three main reason. 1. We will write a custom essay sample on The Environment, what are the issues? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Increases in the World’s population. There has been a major increase in the amount of people who live on the planet. It is estimated that the population has increased by over 75 million per year. That means that it has been predicted that by 2050 the world population is expected to be at 9 billion. 2. The increased use of natural resources, which cannot be replaced. Due to advances in technology we are becoming more reliant on them. We are using up natural resources (like coal, oil and wood) to turn them into energy (like electricity). When these resources are used, they change the environment. They are making by ~ products like carbon monoxide and toxic chemicals. 3. People want more material things than ever before. People who live in countries like ours have a higher standard of living and expect to have a comfortable lifestyle. People who live in less economically developed countries want the same lifestyle. How are people interacting with the environment? If we all lived with the same attitudes to the world, we would not be facing the issues we are today. But we know that every one of us has a different set of priorities and as such are exploiting the environment to achieve our own aims. If we look at the Tropical rainforests we can see this in action. The tropical rainforests cover up to a third of the world’s surface. My species of animals live there and many of them are unique to that area. If one area is changed / damaged this will have a knock on effect to the rest of the world. If you like it is a kind of jigsaw that fits together. When one piece is missing, the eco system is not complete. The trees in the rainforests are important for a number of reasons: 1. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. 2. Without forests radiation bounces back into the atmosphere raising the temperatures. 3. This could alter the air circulation (convection). 4. It is also involved in recycling the water in the earth to return as rainfall in other parts of the world. 5. Streams will disappear if the forests are not there to store the water. This is happening now in parts of Africa! How to cite The Environment, what are the issues?, Papers

Costco company analysis free essay sample

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates an international chain of membership warehouses, manly under the â€Å"Costco Wholesale† name, that carry quality, brand name merchandise at substantially lower prices than are typically found at conventional wholesale or retail sources. The company is in rapid growth in recent years. Its number of warehouses increased to 634 in 2013 with its net sales and net income grew to 103 billion and 2 billion respectively. However, as the company is entering different geographic market segmentations and expanding its business in North America, it is facing fiercer competition in nowadays than in any other period before. Meanwhile, its potential problems in membership format are in exposure. Effective measurements and solutions are in urgent need for the company. In this report, we will basically cover four areas: examine and identify key information and issues about â€Å"Costco Wholesale Corporation† for business intelligence requirements; study the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and objectively report its operational business information; provide data on company financial performance and competitive benchmarking; make recommendations to the company. We will write a custom essay sample on Costco company analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Summary of Costco SWOT analysis: Strengths 1. premium services and products for club members 2. Price positioning leads to increased customer loyalty 3. Low cost operating model 4. favourable employee relationship Weaknesses 1. Limited product choice 2. strained relationship with suppliers Opportunities 1. Ancillary Business 2. Strong growth in Asian markets 3. Growing demand for private label brands Threats 1. Business and operating threats 2. External threats 3. Legal and regulatory threats COMPANY ANALYSIS Continued†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. working on it INDUSTRY ANALYSIS As a giant warehouse-retailer, Costco Wholesale Corporation is in the warehouse club industry that comprises retail stores selling a selection of nationally branded and private label merchandise within a wide range of product categories on lower prices. The nature of warehouse club industry is a small part of retail industry, whose customers are annually paid members in exchange for receiving low retail prices on a wide range of merchandise. Studies have shown that on average, consumers who are members of a warehouse club typically save 30% off of brand name products (wiseGEEK). Warehouse clubs offer their paid members low prices but require them to purchase comparatively large or wholesale quantities of products. This, to some extent, makes the industry to be attractive to bargain hunters and owners of small businesses (Kotler, et al 2013). In addition, rapid inventory turnover, high sales volume and reduced operating costs enable warehouse clubs to operate at lower gross margins of 8% to 14% than discount chains, supermarkets and supercenters, which operate on gross margins of 20% to 40% (Warehouse Club Industry Guide, 2010). On the other hand, the global retail industry continued to grow despite challenging economic conditions and built on the rebound in growth that started in 2010. Sales-weighted, currency-adjusted retail revenue rose 4. 9% to US$4. 29 trillion for the world’s Top 250 retailers in fiscal 2012, building on the previous year’s 5. 1% growth. Nearly 80% of the Top 250 retailers (199 companies) posted an increase in retail revenue (Deloitte, 2014). According to research from MarketLine, market expansion is expected to record yearly growth of close to 5% through 2015 to exceed $13. 2 trillion in global retail market (ReportLinker). According to Deloitte’s 2014 Global Powers of Retailing Report, it identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for fiscal 2012 encompassing companies’ fiscal years ended through to June 2013; however, here mainly focuses on the Top 10 retailers’ analysis. As shown on the above table in Deloitte’s report, with 5% revenue growth, retail giant Wal-Mart increased its lead in 2012. Carrefour, formerly the world’s second largest retailer in 2011 (see Appendix A), fell to fourth place since its declining sales. Tesco, second place in the ranking, was also impacted by discontinued operations, having decided to shutter its Fresh Easy operations in the United States. It was also a year of transformation for Metro Group. The changes that Metro sold its parts of unit and operation dropped it from fourth to seventh place. Meanwhile, a double-digit sales gain boosted Costco from sixth place to third in 2012. And Target joined the top 10 leader board for the first time in 2012, replacing Walgreen (Deloitte, 2014). As a group, with retail revenue growth of 4.2% vs. 4. 9%, the top 10 grew more slowly than the Top 250 in 2012. Profitability for the broader group also has been lagged by that of the leaders. At 2. 8%, the composite net profit margin of top 10 was moderated by the restructuring activity that occurred in 2012. Lower overall profitability also reflects the focus of most of the top 10 retailers on lower-margin, fast-moving consumer goods. Despite a slimmer profit margin, the top 10 generat ed a higher return on assets, posting a composite ROA of 5. 8% vs. 5.0% for the Top 250. The leader group as a whole is much more globally active than the Top 250 retailers overall. On average, the top 10 had retail operations in 16. 3 countries in 2012, compared with 10 countries for the Top 250 (Deloitte, 2014). The world’s 10 largest retailers generated almost one-third of their combined retail revenue from foreign operations in 2012; this compares with less than one-quarter of total Top 250 revenue. Notably, two of the five U. S. companies in the top 10 had no international operations. Conversely, four of the five European companies in the top 10 derived the majority of their revenue from outside their home countries (Deloitte, 2014). Throughout the analysis, with many retailers facing challenging economic conditions in local markets, there has been a clear drive to seek growth opportunities overseas in countries with stronger economic conditions and growth prospects. Overall, this is a strong and growing industry. The major challenge to the growth would be a loss in stability. This makes survival more of a concern and lessens the need for new challenges.

20 Things to Put on Your Bucket List

20 Things to Put on Your Bucket List The end of the year provides a great opportunity for reflection, and in my quarterly business planning day with ActionCOACH in Madison, we did a lot of reflecting. I looked at my experiences, both personal and professional, over the past year, and what the impact has been on who I am. I examined what would need to change about myself to accomplish the things I didn’t accomplish. And I celebrated the accomplishments I did achieve. I wrote a gratitude list that included everything from fennel soup to yoga to the amazing people in my life- friends, family, and clients. Finally, I wrote down some of the things on my â€Å"bucket list†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the proverbial list of things to do before I â€Å"kick the bucket.† On that list were things like traveling to Japan and Seattle, swimming with dolphins, being a Big Sister, and writing my Life and Leadership book. I also want one of those cool Apple Series 3 watches that counts my swim strokes for me. These items speak to my desire to be adventurous, make a difference for someone, and be at the top of my fitness game. They are more than activities and things; they are about who I want to be. This week, as we approach the last stretch of 2017, I invite you to look into the future, toward the things that you want to be part of your ideal life and the ideal you in the future. Below are some categories offered by ActionCOACH that might spark some ideas – and some that I added. See if you can list something in every category. For the purposes of the exercise, don’t worry about money or practicality. Put your skeptic aside and go wild! Celeste Chua, the author of Bucket List Ideas: 101 Things To Do Before You Die, suggests that you come up with 101 things for your bucket list. That’s a lot of things, but they sure will be a lot of fun to check off! And the exercise is completely free! 20 Questions to Generate Your Bucket List Meet someone you admire Have a particular conversation Achieve something you want to achieve Reach a physical fitness goal Buy or acquire a special item Give a gift Embark on an ultimate challenge Conquer a fear Perform kind acts for others Express your creativity Learn something new or improve a skill Leave a legacy Do something silly/idiotic/ridiculous/crazy fun! Satisfy a curiosity Travel somewhere you’ve always wanted to travel Live somewhere you’ve always wanted to live Go on an adventure with your family or friends Witness a special moment Work in a particular job or field Start a business If you’re stuck, maybe one of these lists could help spark some ideas: Bucket List Journeys Bucket List Goals Celestine Chuas Bucket List Ideas: 101 Things To Do Before You Die As you think about your answers, consider the meaning the activity or thing has for you. Who would you become by attaining or doing it? And/or who would you have to become in order to attain or do it? If you’re willing, please share a couple of things that are on your bucket list and what those things mean to you. Let’s get this conversation going! If you find that going back to school or embarking on a new career pursuit make your bucket list, I would be happy to help you present your best self with MBA admissions help, a custom resume, or LinkedIn profile writing.

The Pros and Cons of Fracking essays

The Pros and Cons of Fracking essays Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has become a widespread process with companies trying to benefit from the newly developed method for extracting oil and natural gas from wells that were once thought tapped. North America uses the technique more than any other country (85%) however the method of fracking is spreading quickly (CNN). The fracking process brings new life to old wells by using pressurized water mixed with a few chemicals (1%) and sand, which are forced down a well to create small fractures in the well (TTaF). Once the fissures are open the sand from the solution provides filler to keep the cracks open so the shale can be extracted. During the extraction process usually, about twenty percent of the used water is then recycled and reused at the next extraction site (Grottenthaler). There has been a lot of controversy over fracking with many people protesting against it. In the Marcellus Shale especially they say that the method of fracking causes drinking water to be contaminated. Pennsylvania residents say seventy-five percent of the sampled wells within one kilometer of the wells were highly contaminated with methane (Howarth). The main complaints are that of methane that seeps into the aquifers below the surface and coming out the tap. Researchers say that it is not the actual fracking process, but from wells that have been built incorrectly (TTaF). Another complaint is the amount of salt output of a typical well. A single well produces more salt per well then a common state would use for icy roads for over a decade. In turn, the massive cost that comes with the treatment and disposal of the tainted water and abundance of salt that has to be transported on trucks creating more and more emissions. Considering that there is an average of five hundred trucks that are needed per good completion, the disposal process is a highly intensive and expensive process (Glanville). Experts say that even though there have been many...

GEOGRAPHY - PAPER ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

GEOGRAPHY - PAPER ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA - Essay Example Population distribution is following: 0-14 years: 38% (female 8,842,764; male 9,091,722), 15-64 years: 56% (female 12,825,617; male 12,508,039), more than 65 years: 6 % (female 1,047, 285; male 780, 032). Total population growth rate is 2,02%. Birth rate is 31, 34/1000 population and death rate is about 7,02/1000 population. Infant mortality rate is 36,2 deaths/1000 live births, and it decreases annually for about 2 per cent. Life expectancy is following: for total population – 67,42 years, for males – 64,68 years; for females -69,54 years, and it tends to increase from year to yer. Total fertility rate is about 3,4 children born/woman. Ethnic divisions are following: black – 75,2%, white -13,6%, colored- 8,6%, Indians – 2,6 %. The most widespread religions are: Christianity (the majority of colored and whites and approximately 60% of blacks), Islam – 2 %, Hinduism – about 60% of Indians. There are 11 official languages in South Africa, which include English, Ndebele, Pedi, Afrikaans, Swazi, Tsonga, Xhosa, Zulu and others, as the Figure 1 shows. Literacy rates are following: total population – 86 per cent, males – 90 %, females – 83%. There are about 16 million economically active people, occupied in following areas: agriculture -30%, services -35%, industry -28%, mining-14%, other -4%. One of the acutest demographic problems is spreading of HIV/AIDS (Figure 2), and about 22% of adults are HIV/positive. Thus, the many medical anti-AIDS campaigns, which propagate safe and healthy life, have already been realized. 2) The most widespread resources of South Africa are following: renewable natural resources: water, agricultural resources (such as soil), air, forests (about 3% of the whole area). Non-renewable resources: chromium, coal, gold, antimony, nickel, tin, diamonds, natural gas, nickel, platinum, copper, vanadium, phosphates, uranium. Political resources are

Why are some firms Born Global Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Why are some firms Born Global - Essay Example The motivation behind this phenomenon has been the increasing ease in conducting international trade and the globalisation concept that is being embraced the world over where the globe is one big market. This paper shall seek to look at why some firms are born global and look into the risks that they face in international markets. Firms that are born global have various characteristics in common that are both internal and external and they have similar market strategies they use to approach the international market. The born global concept therefore circles around internationalisation of firms and thus their ultimate expansion strategy (Fillis 2001, pp. 767-83). As mentioned earlier these firms enter into the export market when they are relatively small and young and the drive to do this emanates from their perception of the world being a market place. They take advantage of this and venture into markets abroad. These firms have been a subject of intense research for many years and particularly for the last two decades. They were first labelled as innate exporters but these were more characterised by high level management skills as well as a broader and in-depth international business outlook. Some firms were also taken for study and they were the high technology ones. These firms were seen to sprout to the i nternational business arena right from their start. The basic reason for this was the nature of their products where they needed to venture into new market so as to have a wider market base for their exotic products. All these firms that were characterised by their speed to enter into the international market were later termed as International New Ventures (Child and Rita 2001, pp. 1135-48). The following diagram illustrates this concept better: Although it was mentioned earlier that born global firms have been under research for a number of years now, the various challenges they

SWOT Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SWOT - Case Study Example The Dim lighting company is faced with several problems that include macro and micro challenges, the macro challenges are those that are outside the reach of the company to solve them using internal mechanisms, in other words, they are the opportunities and threats that the company faces. One of the greatest threat that the company faces is the lack of adequate funds to support its research and development kitty which Mr Spinks, the director of research and development at the company puts at 1.2 million dollars per year for two years then an additional 500, 000 dollars to initiate production the micro miniaturization project (Brown, 2011, p81). Another threat that is facing the company is the decline in the profit margin for the last one year, which has an implication on the image of the business to the outsiders. The company however, is not without some opportunities, the major opportunity that the company has is that it acts as a profit centre therefore it is able to manage its resources with minimal interference from the corporate head office, in addition, this enables it to make its own decisions and implement them in order to remain competitive in the market. In addition, the fact that the company can be able to look for funds from the head office to invest in research and development is an opportunity that may not be available to all such firms. Internally, the strength of the company is that it has Mr Spinks as the director of research and development; Mr Spinks is a respected person in research as he is considered as one of the best brains in research, this can be seen in the numerous awards that he has received from different science societies . With Mr Spinks as a director, Dim lighting company is likely to be always ahead of other companies in terms of technology and renovation; this is evident from the multimillion-research project that he wants to undertake on micro miniaturization

the Firm Strategy Structure and Rivalry

the Firm Strategy Structure and Rivalry Sialkot is known as the export city of Pakistan. Out of many cottage and small scale industries, sports industry is one of the most prominent in the city. There are total 3559 sports goods industries in Pakistan out of which over 98 percent are located in the city of Sialkot and its suburbs.[1] Imported sports brands like Adidas (Germany), Puma (Germany), Nike (USA) and Slazenger (UK) started getting their products manufactured from the Sialkot sports industry. This international collaboration was a big achievement. In 1994, official soccer balls were required for FIFA football World Cup, USA 94. Sialkot sports equipment exporters were selected for this supply.[2] However, the industry is now experiencing loss of market share because of lack of modernization that is latest technology usage, poor information infrastructure, competition with China, India and Japan, low capital for industry expansion, lack of technical education, innovation and international standards in production, frequent power outages, poor management skills and lack of coordination among related industries in the sports cluster. Using the Porters Diamond model for analysis, we can better understand the current situation of the sports industry (exhibit 1). Porters Diamond model[3] helps in understanding the role of clusters in competition and enables a government to gauge how an industry can become competitive on a global level. Demand Conditions: Sialkot sports industry had been generating major revenue by exporting sports wear and sports equipment to the international market. But there has been a recent downfall in the industry. The international market demands innovation in sports products, use of better technologies and international standards in production. Firm Strategy Structure and Rivalry: There is a strong competition with China, India and Japan. International brands like NIKE, Adidas etc. are getting their products made from these countries because of cheap labor and raw materials there. China specially is a big threat to the industry.[4] Factor Conditions: Small scale industries are run by a familys own savings. As savings are limited, expansion of industrial units is not possible and it could soon get exhausted. So, capital is a hurdle in advancement. Power outages are one of the biggest problems of Pakistan these days. It causes problems in the form of delays in production. Employees are not well equipped with the management skills. Because of obsolete technology usage, the industry is lagging behind the market. Infrastructure needs to be enhanced according to modern demands. Raw materials which are required include synthetic rubber, rubber, leather (pebble grained leather), wood, aluminum, nylon, gut etc. These are all locally produced. Related Supporting Industries: Despite the presence of big sports cluster including locally based suppliers of raw materials, the cooperation among the private-public partnerships seems to be low. Differences in prices are created because of lack of coordination among the related industries. Individuals are not well trained about the technology advancement. Entrepreneur fervor is there but innovation is lagging behind.[5] Analysis: Regaining markets share will require a number of changes. In order to analyze the importance of the sports industry and to judge whether there is really any need for upgrading the sports cluster, the SWOT analysis is carried out which shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by the sports industry of Pakistan (exhibit 2). According to it, the sports industry has sustained up till now because of the long history of exports which has enabled it to maintain active and reliable linkages in international markets. Though small in number, the labor force possesses multiple skills regarding production, for example, in the manufacturing of cricket bats, tennis rackets, and footballs which is keeping the industry functioning. However, sports industries are small-scale cottage industries with weak management capabilities of the employees and a tough price competition in the market, making their survival difficult. Moreover, absence of international standards and accredited testing laboratories is also adding to the weaknesses. Lack of product innovation and extensive power outages are also affecting it negatively. Furthermore, employees are not well trained about the latest technologies in the market and are thus reluctant in adopting them which is putting the industry behind day by day. Keeping the employees well trained about latest technologies will enable them to keep track of the latest trends in the market. Also, in small scale industries the investors are poor and illiterate so the production methods and machinery are outdated. Moreover, there are good opportunities for the sports industry to flourish like low rate of mark-up on working capital loans, very low income tax rates and better trade access in EU and USA. Some threats to the industry involve technical and environmental barriers to trade, licensing and international standards requirement by the international markets and producers of raw materials. Lack of education resulting in poor technology advancement has become a threat to the industry.[6] China/ East Asia production is also posing serious threat to the industry. Recommendations: In order to improve the export conditions of the sports industry, the following Five Year Plan needs to be implemented. Five Year Plan: The Five Year Plan would focus on: Addressing barriers (poor information infrastructure, lack of technical know-how, less capital, power outages, illiteracy, poor management skills, lack of modernization) Sports products innovation and diversity Educating entrepreneurs about advanced technology Labor skills enhancement to bring innovation and diversity in products Overarching Strategy: To enhance and strengthen the existing sports cluster and move it towards competitive advantage To bring reforms which would enable the sports industry to overcome the market share losses Year 1 A Cluster Monitoring Cell comprising of dedicated departments would be established by the government which would monitor the activities of the sports industry cluster and would try to bring reforms to the industry. Existing employees would be educated about the latest technology trends prevalent in the market. Technical centers would be setup under governments educational programs, launched and funded by the Education Department to provide adequate training to the employees. Workshops for counseling regarding investment and other matters would be provided to the new comers in the business. This would be taken care of by the Training Department. Research Department would point out industries in the cluster which justly require funds. Funding Department would then collaborate with the government to provide loans and easy installment facilities to the owners in order to reduce the risk of going out of business. The information infrastructure needs to be improved by the Information Resource Bureau for proper flow of information across the multiple industries in the sports cluster. Government intervention plans would be made and implemented in order to reduce threats. The Research Department would indentify when intervention is required. Human Resource Department would set criteria for hiring employees. Government would launch scholarship and exchange programs under the Education Department of Cluster Monitoring Cell in order to overcome the reluctance of employees in getting educated. Year 2-3 In continuation to Year 1 Plan: In order to cater to the needs of a wide range of markets, diversity in production would be introduced. Responsible organizations like Cluster Monitoring Cell and Government would focus on capacity building so that better advantage could be taken of opportunities available to the industry. Issues regarding World Trade Organization would be overcome through proper seminars, trainings and workshops which would be conducted at least four times a year at different locations. Strict laws would be implemented, violation of which would result in penalties. Export services provided by the government would be strengthened. Solar, wind and hydel power generating units would be installed at the industry by the government to deal with power outage problem. Year 4-5 In continuation to Year 2-3 Plan: A comprehensive national level strategy plan will be made which would involve all the stakeholders. Focus would be on sustainable development of the industry. For that, reliance on subsidies and monetary support will be discouraged. Government would intervene to limit the ever increasing number of industries by allowing only those industries to export that have a certain capacity for capital investment. Conclusion: Sports industry is one of the most revenue generating industries of Pakistan. There is an urgent need to adopt the above recommendations before it is too late. These would help in bridging the gap between the various related industries in the sports cluster. Technical know how, information about WTO issues and latest technologies need to be infused in the minds of the entrepreneurs so that they could help in better running of the industry. Government needs to intervene in the industry matters at the right time in order to control the situation before industries are met with market shares losses. Bibliography: Ghani, Dr. Jawaid A. SIALKOTS ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, No.96-10 (September, 1996). Karim, Yasir,Sports Industry in Pakistan Porter, Michael E., Chapter 7, Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments and Institutions in On Competition, (Boston:Harvard Business School Press,1998). Web Resources: DAWN Media Group (29th August, 2009) Pakistan set to recapture football market, available at http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/business/09-pakistan-set-to-recapture-football-marketszh-06, accessed 17th March, 2010. Sialkot Export (no date) Sports Wear, Sports Goods in Sialkot, available at http://www.sialkotexport.com/sports.aspx, accessed 17th March 2010. Dr. Jawaid A. Ghani, SIALKOTS ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, No.96-10 (September, 1996), p.7 Sialkot Export (no date) Sports Wear, Sports Goods in Sialkot, available at http://www.sialkotexport.com/sports.aspx, accessed 17th March 2010. Michael E. Porter, Chapter 7, Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments and Institutions in On Competition, (Boston:Harvard Business School Press,1998), p.211 DAWN Media Group (29th August, 2009), available at http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/business/09-pakistan-set-to-recapture-football-marketszh-06, accessed 17th March, 2010. Porter, Chapter 7, Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments and Institutions , p.210-213. Yasir Karim, Sports Industry in Pakistan, pp.9-10 Yasir Karim, Sports Industry in Pakistan, p.11 Porter, Chapter 7, Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments and Institutions , p.211 Karim, Sports Industry in Pakistan, pp.9-10

Placing Me Before We in Ayn Rands Anthem Essay -- Anthem Essays

Placing Me Before We in Ayn Rand's Anthem Ayn Rand's classic story of one man's desire to become an individual in a nameless society presents a compelling refutation of collectivism in all forms. The hero, labeled "Equality 7-2521" by the State, chooses to challenge conventional authority as he learns the joys of experimentation and discovery, the ecstasy of human love, the challenge and fairness of liberty, and the happiness of self-interest. Equality 7-2521 writes three unique phrases in his journal: 1. "My happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end.", 2. "We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.", 3. "The word 'We' . . . must never be placed first within man's soul.". These phrases will be discussed individually in the remainder of this essay. 1. "My happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end." In the tale, this thought drives the entire actions of Equality 7-2521 as he progresses in his attempt to become an individual. His happiness is not satisfied when he must share it universally with all men. Not every man can be as happy as the next, and therefore the forced brotherhood of all men will only deplete the spirits of those who are successful. In Anthem, Rand tells of Equality's joy when he "discovers" electricity. At that moment he knows that the joy of discovery is only his to relish, and that it cannot be shared or manipulated by any other man. In that regard, his own well-being is the end of his striving; he has fulfilled his wishes. To say that his happiness was only the means to, say, world peace would be to abolish his status ... ... by individuals who had some self-interest at heart. However, the creator of a product is justly entitled to his own happiness, and therefore it is at his discretion that his invention is distributed. One who creates a great thing cannot be forced to share it with mankind unless he desires. In most cases, it is in the self-interest of the originator that his creation be distributed freely. Thus, man is no longer a free man when he thinks of the group's interest above his own. It is fine for someone to be compassionate, but it is foolish to place the happiness of anyone else in front of your own. When men choose to follow groupthink, they forfeit their identities, and the end result is a world without freedom or creativity. Mankind is composed of sovereign individuals, and each person only has one obligation to self: think of "me" before "we."

Control Chart

Tables of Constants for Control charts Table 8A – Variable Data ref : AIAG manual for SPC X bar and R Charts Chart for Averages Control Limits Factor Subgroup size (n) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 15 25 A2 1. 880 1. 023 0. 729 0. 577 0. 483 0. 419 0. 373 0. 337 0. 308 0. 223 0. 153 Chart for Averages Chart for Standard Deviation (s) Chart for Ranges (R) Divisors Divisors to to Control Estimate Factors for Control estimate Factors for Control Limits Factor Limits Limits ?x ?x d2 1. 128 1. 693 2. 059 2. 326 2. 534 2. 704 2. 847 2. 970 3. 078 3. 472 3. 931 D3 0. 076 0. 136 0. 184 0. 23 0. 347 0. 459 Centerline X bar and R Charts CL X = X CLR = R X bar and s Charts X bar and s charts CLX = X CL s = s Institute of Quality and Reliability www. world-class-quality. com D4 3. 267 2. 574 2. 282 2. 114 2. 004 1. 924 1. 864 1. 816 1. 777 1. 653 1. 541 A3 2. 659 1. 954 1. 628 1. 427 1. 287 1. 182 1. 099 1. 032 0. 975 0. 789 0. 606 c4 0. 7979 0. 8862 0. 9213 0. 9400 0. 9515 0. 9594 0. 9650 0. 9693 0 . 9727 0. 9823 0. 9896 B3 0. 030 0. 118 0. 185 0. 239 0. 284 0. 428 0. 565 Control Limits UCLX = X + A2 R LCL UCLR = D4 R LCL R = D3 R UCLX = X + A3 S LCL X = X ?A3 S UCL s = B4 s LCL s = B 3 s Control Chart Factors X = X ? A2 R B4 3. 267 2. 568 2. 266 2. 089 1. 970 1. 882 1. 815 1. 761 1. 716 1. 572 1. 435 ?x R d2 s c4 Page 1 of 3 Tables of Constants for Control charts Table 8B Variable Data ref : AIAG manual for SPC Median Charts Chart for Medians Charts for Individuals Chart for Individuals Chart for Ranges (R) Control Divisors to Limits Estimate Factors for Control Factor Limits ?x Subgroup size 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ~ A2 1. 880 1. 187 0. 796 0. 691 0. 548 0. 508 0. 433 0. 412 0. 362 d2 1. 128 1. 693 2. 059 2. 326 2. 534 2. 704 . 847 2. 970 3. 078 D3 0. 076 0. 136 0. 184 0. 223 D4 3. 267 2. 574 2. 282 2. 114 2. 004 1. 924 1. 864 1. 816 1. 777 Centerline CL Median Charts ~ X ~ =X CLR = R Charts for Individuals CL X =X CLR = R Institute of Quality and Reliability www. world-class-qua lity. com Control Limits Factor E2 2. 660 1. 772 1. 457 1. 290 1. 184 1. 109 1. 054 1. 010 0. 975 Chart for Moving Range (R) Divisors to Estimate Factors for Control ?x Limits d2 1. 128 1. 693 2. 059 2. 326 2. 534 2. 704 2. 847 2. 970 3. 078 D3 0. 076 0. 136 0. 184 0. 223 D4 3. 267 2. 574 2. 282 2. 114 2. 004 1. 924 . 864 1. 816 1. 777 Control Limits UCL ~ X ~ ~ = X + A2 R UCLR = D4 R UCL X = X + E 2 R UCLR = D4 R Control Chart Factors LCL ~ X ~ = X ? A2 R LCL R = D3 R LCL X = X ? E 2 R LCL R = D3 R Page 2 of 3 Tables of Formulas for Control charts Table 8 C Attribute Data ref : AIAG manual for SPC Centerline Control Limits Samples not necessarily of constant size UCL p chart for CL p = p proportions of units in a category pi = p+3 c chart for number of incidences in one or more categories ni LCL p i = p ? 3 p (1 ? p ) ni If the Sample size is constant (n) UCL p = p + 3 np chart for umber / rate of units in a category p (1 ? p ) p (1 ? p ) n LCL p = p ? 3 p (1 ? p ) n CL = np np UCL np = np + 3 np(1 ? p) LCLnp = np ? 3 np(1 ? p) CL c = c UCLc = c + 3 c LCLc = c ? 3 c Samples not necessarily of constant size CLu = u u chart for number of incidences per unit in one or more categories UCLu = u + 3 LCLu = u ? 3 u ni UCL u = u ? 3 u n UCL u = u ? 3 u n using average sample size UCL u = u + 3 u n If the sample size is constant (n) UCL u = u + 3 Institute of Quality and Reliability www. world-class-quality. com u ni u n Control Chart Factors Page 3 of 3

The House on Mango Street-The Elephant Man essays

The House on Mango Street-The Elephant Man essays The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and The Elephant Man by Christine Sparks are novels in which the main characters are both searching for their identity in a society where they are not accepted. In The House on Mango Street, a young girl names Esparanza is self-conscious about her home, her appearance, and her name. Throughout her childhood, she observes many of lifes realities while meeting her neighbors on Mango Street . She searches for her childhood identity only wishing to become a writer. Esperanza, in many ways can be compared to the protagonist in The Elephant Man, John Merrick. He is a bright, sensitive man who is imprisoned in a distorted body where he only wishes to be treated as an equal. When a generous man named Treves chooses to help and take care of John Merrick, he finally begins to come out of his shell and reveal his true self. He also uses writing as an outlet in helping him deal with a society that doesnt choose to accept him. The House On Mango Street is a novel which traces Esperanza Corderos childhood through a series of stories about her family, neighborhood, and secret dreams. Throughout the short stories, Esperanza deals with obstacles such as poverty, gender, and race. The novel begins when the Cordero family moves into a new house on Mango Street. Esperanza is not only ashamed of her home, she is uncomfortable with her outside appearance, which she feels doesnt convey her the true personality hidden inside of her. Throughout the entire novel, Esperanza observes the lives of her neighbors and this is how she learns to deal with her life and the world around her. Although she constantly tells the readers that she wants to move away from Mango Street, by the end of the novel we know she will one day return to help those who arent as lucky as her. One day Ill own my own house, but I wont forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bum...

Pba

Pba Have you ever wondered how the FBI and your local police department take citizens fingerprint's. Well ,you are about to find out. Here's some very interesting facts about fingerprints. Did you know that in almost every crime scene Have you ever wondered how the FBI and your local police department take citizens fingerprint's. Well ,you are about to find out. Here's some very where a person may have touched something the police will search for fingerprint's. The most common example of a crime scene where fingerprints may be found is a burglary. The FBI receives 37,000 new fingerprint cards a day from Police Departments all around the country.These cards are sent to the FBI to be classified. ( Prints are classified according to their patterns.) Does gender have an effect on the different types of fingerprint patterns that a person has. Since the discovery of fingerprints there have only been 3 basic types of patterns discovered those are.English: Picture of a right loop fingerprint pat te...

Compare the views of human nature advanced by two ideologies of your Essay

Compare the views of human nature advanced by two ideologies of your choice - Essay Example One of such theories was developed by Marx, on what is popularly referred to as Marxism. The theory of human nature developed by Marx primarily criticizes the conception of capitalism and communism, which are popular political ideologies. On the other hand, Aristotle describes the human nature as one that is unique and is notable by diversity. This paper compares the views of human nature as described by Aristotle and Marx. Aristotle maintains that man is naturally blind to morality, implying that human beings are amoral creatures. At the same time, Aristotle argues that man is born without knowledge and, therefore, morality cannot be a part of the human nature (Kupperman, 2010, p.4). In the course of his life, man continues to acquire the knowledge of morality. In this argument, Aristotle is not only making the argument that the nature of man is amoral but also the fact that morality is a post-acquired knowledge in the due course of life. The statement is backed by Aristotle’s later argument that wickedness is voluntary, and no man is born evil. It is the rational choices that human beings make after birth that make them either moral or immoral. Another important aspect of the human nature put forward by Aristotle is the idea that man is a hedonistic being. This means that he can shun the pain and pursue pleasure by nature. The man described by Aristotle is capable of dreaming, sleeping, and is anxious about the old age. He also lives in a political state and is continually fascinated by the animal world. Man is also naturally religious and tends to look at heaven with hopes of a better destiny. Aristotle believes that man is a rational social animal and that both the body and the soul were essential parts of the nature of man (Ward, 2005, p.290). At the same time, Aristotle maintains that; without a society, man would not be human. The self is mainly discovered through the natural potentialities

Royal Bank of Scotland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Royal Bank of Scotland - Essay Example At the time the controversy was percolating in the banking community there were no existing regulations that will cap bonuses much less the regular compensation of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s most senior officers. Ergo for all intents and purposes senior managers were not violating the law and their obligation to do no fault before the bars of justice. However the ethical standard was not only thrown out the window the sense of propriety of the people involved was put into questions. The board of directors itself populated by either the same people who will receive the bonuses shall of course choose to receive the bonus. It should be noted that there is nothing wrong in getting bonuses however, getting it from a distressed bank or an institution that are not only losing money but will be bailed out by the government. Banks are the very foundation of the economy of the United Kingdom, if its citizens lost its trust and confidence in the banking sector the result would not only be economic dislocation but also total economic chaos. These events would precipitate from the shortage of currency which banks help to balance to ensure that their amount can be sustained by the sum total of the United Kingdom’s assets. Thus it is essential that banks are free from controversy that may cause the subject of the United Kingdom to lose its trust and confidence. The United Kingdom failure to institute immediate sanctions to erring banks and their officers were not enough and cannot be rectified by a mere threat of an increase in taxes on bonuses. Drastic measures such as those implemented by the United States to break down or collapse the banks into several pieces were even lobbied by some legislators from both houses of the United Kingdom. Considering that the government of the United Kingdom owns more than half of the Royal Bank of Scotland, it is therefore in the best interest of the government to protect its interest through the board seats it occupy.   T he bonuses for all intents and purposes may have been given or agreed upon by the board of directors with the senior executives of the bank long before the losses were incurred. Thus, the senior management that was affected was well within their rights to receive the bonuses. However, considering that bonus are supposed to be rewards for a job well done. The bonuses are not only needed but it was never really justified in the first place.

Identify Components of a Typical Contract Essay

Identify Components of a Typical Contract - Essay Example Parties must meet the legal capacity to enter into valid contracts (Miller & Jentz, 2012). This implies that parties must be of age, to understand stipulations of a contract and be of sound mind. It must be noted that minors of age below eighteen years cannot enter into a contract. Another requirement to be met by parties entering into contracts is that concerned parties must ensure that the contract is free from any form of future misunderstandings and has no loopholes. An offer must be made, and consideration be made for exchange. The purpose for which any contract is made must be for legal objectives. Lastly, parties meeting all the legal requirements seal the contract (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2012). The law also stipulates measures to be taken should any of the parties fail to honor terms of the agreement or perform breach of contract. The injured party could rescind the contract or set free the breaching party off any responsibilities coming because of the contract implement ation? The other option available is for the parties to reach an agreement on notation (Walston-Dunham, 2012). The injured side has a right to ask for compensation from the defaulter for damages or loss incurred. The injured party can file for a court order restraining the other party from undertaking any transaction direct related to the agreement. All rules relating to how contracts are formed and how every party is supposed to behave are contained in the law of contract (Walston-Dunham, 2012). Case 1 The two parties here are on contract, to sell ten acres of land. The seller, Krauses in the first instance offered a price less than the actual market value and a contract was formed both parties. The contract is legally binding in all terms and both parties are required to observe stated term. Krauses cannot make changes on the contract despite realizing the quoted price is much lower than the market price (Walston-Dunham, 2012). Changes can be implemented to the terms of the contra ct on exceptional cases such as when the contract ends (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2012). The contract could also be terminated if both parties reach a mutual agreement to end the contract and in other cases when both parties have fulfilled their obligation to each other leaving no other reason for the parties to carry out the contract (Walston-Dunham, 2012). If another situation arose and Krauses breaches the contract terms by indicating a price higher than agreed in writing, Jud is not liable to adhering to the stipulated terms as Krauses has performed breach of contract by false writing for his personal reasons (Miller & Jentz, 2012). As a result, Jud has right to terminate the contract as it does not act as per the laid down agreement (Walston-Dunham, 2012). Case 2 The second case implies a contract whereby there are two parties Gerald and a centre looking into the needs of disadvantaged children. The initial agreement was that Gerald who is an event organizer stages a concert to raise funds for the kids centre. However, Gerald thereafter decides not to hand over the concert earnings to the charity home as per the agreement. Both parties were well aware of the stipulations of the agreement and had the intention to abide by them (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2012). As earlier stated, for a contract to be valid it must fulfill all terms laid down by law. One of the stipulati

Fitzgerald and Gatsby Essay Example for Free

Fitzgerald and Gatsby Essay Francis Scott key Fitzgerald was a popular american storyteller. Born September 24th, 1896 and died in December 21st, 1940, Fitzgerald lived the prime of his life in the Roaring-Twenties. The values and morals were declining in favor of materialistic and careless attitudes following the world war. Social prestige no longer came to how hardworking and knowledgeable you were but how much property and goods you had. People began to think that instead of earning a place in society you could purchase it. This corrupted the characters in the novel The Great Gatsby and twisted the American dream. In the novel by Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby he connects many of the characters to real people that he has delt with in his life. Fitzgerald’s character Gatsby is a mirror of himself. In many ways Fitzgerald betters himself through Gatsby and his characteristics but still follows a close backbone to Fitzgerald himself and events in his life. James Gats was born into a poor, disadvantaged farm family and came from nothing. Fitzgerald was born into a deprived family and had to create himself on his own. Neither came from old money or was born into the elite class but rather had to work for all of their money. Fitzgerald loved to party and drink but with that came many things he did wrong when he was drunk. Gatsby threw many parties but never drank so he wouldnt miss a beat. It says how Gatsby learned from Dan Cody, that when he was drunk women took advantage of him and he made ignorant mistakes. Fitzgerald was taken advantage by his wife and spent money very foolishly when he was drunk. Gatsby was created without Fitzgeralds alcoholism. Fitzgerald was also enrolled in the army and became a military officer but never went to war. Gatsby returned home as a war hero with medals of honor. Gatsby never had money problems it seemed as he never really worked but the money just kept coming in. Fitzgerald was always fighting to keep making money and worked for hours on end to make ends meet so he could support his lavish, careless, and drunken lifestyle. Fitzgerald was a major party addict. He loved the fast life. He was an excessive partier but his home life suffered and was extremely unhappy. Gatsby Through many big parties almost every weekend but he was lacking the only thing money couldnt buy him, love. Both Fitzgerald and Gatsby fell in ove at a young age with a woman out of their league. Fitzgerald with Ginevra and Gatsby with Daisy. Both Daisy and Ginevra came from a background of old money. They lived luxurious lifestyles. These women were beautiful,rich and characterized everything these men believed were perfect. They were blinded by materialistic things rather than inner beauty. At the time these men were still unsuccessful and couldnt support these high maintenance women. Their love lives are very similar. Both Daisy and Ginevra did love them but could not marry them because â€Å"Rich girls do not marry poor boys†. The women moved on but the men still loved them and were even more determined to become successful and win their lovers back. In the end both men were successful and earned a lot of money to move into the elite class. They so called conquered the American Dream But they were still unhappy. They didnt have the loving family unit or white picket fence house instead they had excessive amours of money, designer clothing, expensive cars, big unfriendly mansions and a cold separated family. But both Daisy and Ginevra got married already to rich men who could support their lifestyles. They were both unhappy with their marriage. Fitzgerald meets up with Ginevra again and has a second and last chance to impress her and win over her love now that he was successful. They meet at a bar and he drinks and is out of control. He is rude and is not the way Ginevra remember the Fitzgerald she fell in love with and loses his chance. Gatsby gets a second chance with Daisy too. When he firsts meets her she seems different to him, Older and less bubbly but he still loves her. But he goes out to lunch with her and her husband and takes things too far trying to win her back and loses his final chance. Through time things have changed about each character but in their minds they were static. They were both imagining different visuals and personalities from their youths. Everyone in life gets older and matures. It did not work out in the end for both men. The American dream was twisted and all of the riches they earned were wasted because money cannot buy true love. It just was not ment to be. Even though money is up there with oxygen it isnt everything. These men where searching for love and happiness and money was not going to buy it. The novel parallels to Fitzgeralds life immensely. Its captures and llustrates many of the issues Fitzgerald suffered. He had constant implications with women in his life therefore he portrays them as shallow, ignorant, and disloyal in the novel. Fitzgerald used many of his emotions to influence his novel and that is why it mirrors his life so closely, as well as many of the other pieces of writing he has created. He is a gifted writer and lived a rollacoster lifestyle up until he died of a heart attack. If only he realized sooner how to prioritize his life he could lived much happier. It is unfortunate what he had to go through. But there is no reward for living life as a drunken partier.

Job Discrimination Essay -- Discrimination is Wrong

In some way or another we have all experienced discrimination not only through race but also sex, a disability, religion and so on. How can we determine if discrimination is right in areas other than race? If we define discrimination from the Webster’s dictionary it can be the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person belongs. In my opinion I would simply say that â€Å"you can’t judge a book by its cover† and that is what we tend to do when we face discrimination. The Federal Equal Opportunity Laws are the enforcers of such discriminations people face on a daily job. Whenever employees encounter a problem with discrimination the EEO laws are their as protection for their rights in the workplace.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws are like the book of psalms in your bible, daily laws to live by. Under the title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA, it is illegal to participate in any discrimination when dealing with employment. For instance, hiring and firing, recruitment, testing and transfer, promotion, lay off, or recall. Which employers are responsible for making employees aware of the rights under the EEOC? Under the title VII it explains that it is not only intentional discrimination, but also discrimination against color, sex, religion, race, and national origin. When describing National Origin Discrimination it is discriminating against people because of their ancestry, birthplace and culture. National origin an employer has the right to request proper form of Identification or something that let’s them know that they are legal citizens; and this is supported by the IRCA. Dealing with Religious Accommodation discrimination that the employer has the right to ask his boss for permission to accommodate his religious belief. For instance, if the employee is practicing the Muslim religion, and he is required to pray in certain areas at certain times, he needs to make sure that when he practices his daily religious belief that it does not affect other employees. Sex discrimination would fall under title VII, which can range from sexual harassment can stem from sexual favors from the same or opposite sex. For pregnant women they should be treated the same way any ill person would be treated. Next, Age Discriminati... ...specific agent the â€Å"Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) they make sure that the party that is being charged is under both federal and state law. Once the charge has been filed they contact the employer and there are several ways they can go about the incident. For instance, interviews, review documents, and maybe visit the incident where it happened. In these cases mentioned above when discrimination is present these are things that may occur: back pay, hiring, promotion, reinstatement, front pay and reasonable accommodation; it may also include attorneys’ fees, and court costs. As I researched this topic, I read a passage in the book Sex Discrimination in the legal Profession, that women in the early 1980’s and 1990’s who were lawyers were getting paid less than a man in the same profession; yes female lawyers are among the most highly educated women on earth now is that equal. Well I think by now we should know whether this topic is a federal or state law? Yes it is a federal law. In order for job discrimination to decrease we must learn how to treat people equal regardless of the color of their skin or their race, or any other discrimination we face in day-to-day life.

The Uncertainty of Happiness in Anton Chekhovs About Love Essay

In Anton Chekov's "About Love" Alekhin also known as Pavel Konstantinovich shares a story within a story about his one true love Anna Alekeevna with Burkin, the high school teacher and Ivan Inanovich, the veterinary surgeon. The story shares how he and Anna grew to share an unconditional love for each other. The two sacrificed their love for each other for the happiness of others since Anna was already married and had two children. Later on in his life, Alekhin realizes that he had missed his one chance of true love, when he had the chance they should have sacrificed everything and attempted to live a happy life together. Although Alehin's tone while telling his story seems to doubt the possibility of true happiness, it is not until after he is finished that he seems to understand that by not sacrificing and taking chances in life, you hinder your chance of ever-attaining true contentment. Living in his own form of futliarnost, Alekhin enforces the idea that ones own happiness is set upon the ideal they have envisioned for themselves. I an educated man with a knowledge of languages, should, instead of devoting myself to science or literary work, live in the country, rush around like a squirrel in a cage, work hard with never a penny to show for it (198). The term "futliarnost" is used to explain one who encasts himself physically, psychologically or morally in order to reduce the contact between oneself and the rest of the world. Alekhin's state of affairs with Anna comes in the form of a rejection of love, forcing him to keep busy with daily routines to keep his mind from pondering upon hi... ...hat he had the chance to be in love was a taste of happiness. One must take chances and make sacrifices in order to obtain such a passionate emotion; if that person refuses to change their ways they may be pushing away a chance of happiness that may only come once. It is not until Alekhin is finished telling his story that he comes to realize many things about the situation and himself. Others may look upon happiness as a state of mind you create for yourself, a state of contentment. Alekhin was able to reach this state by occupying himself and achieving good in his life. One can look upon this story as one of irreverence or a lesson in life. Happiness is relative; a person can create happiness or unhappiness depending on how they choose to act upon chances life and loved ones present to them.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 22~23

Twenty-two Theo The walls of Molly's trailer were plastered with movie posters. He stood in the middle of the living room among the scattered videotapes, magazines, and junk mail and slowly turned. It was her, Molly. She hadn't been lying all this time. Most of the posters were in foreign languages, but every one featured a younger Molly in various states of undress, holding weapons or fighting off bad guys, her hair flying in the wind, a nuked-out city or a desert littered with human skulls and burned-out cars in the background. The adolescent male part of Theo, the part that every man tries to bury but carries to his grave, reared up. She was a movie star. A hot movie star! And he knew her, had in fact put handcuffs on her. If there was only a locker room, a street corner, or a second-period study hall where he could brag about it to his friends. But he didn't really have any friends, except for Gabe maybe, and Gabe was a grown-up. The prurient moment passed and Theo felt guilty about the way he had treated Molly: patronizing her and condescending to her; the way many people treated him when he tried to be something besides a pothead and puppet. He kneeled down to a bookshelf filled with videotapes, found one labeled KENDRA: WARRIOR BABE OF THE OUT LAND (ENGLISH), and slipped it into the VCR and turned on the television. Then he turned off the lights, laid his guns on the coffee table, and lay down on Molly's couch to wait. He watched as the Crazy Lady of Pine Cove battled mutants and Sand Pirates for half an hour before he drifted off to sleep. His mind needed a deeper escape from his problems than the movie could provide. â€Å"Hi, Theo.† He came awake startled. The movie was still casting a flickering light over the room, so he couldn't have been sleeping that long. She stood in the doorway, half in shadow, looking very much like the woman on the television screen. She held an assault rifle at her side. â€Å"Molly, I've been waiting for you.† â€Å"How'd you like it?† She nodded toward the television. â€Å"Loved it. I never realized. I was just so tired†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Molly nodded. â€Å"I won't be long, I just came to get some clean clothes. You're welcome to stay here.† Theo didn't know what to do. It didn't seem like the time to grab one of the pistols off the table. He felt more embarrassed than threatened. â€Å"Thanks,† he said. â€Å"He's the last one, Theo. After him there aren't any more of his kind. His time has passed. I think that's what we have in common. You don't know what it is to be a has-been, do you?† â€Å"I think I'm what they call a never-was.† â€Å"That's easier. At least you're always looking up the ladder, not down. Coming down is scarier.† â€Å"How? Why? What is he?† â€Å"I'm not sure, a dragon maybe. Who knows?† She leaned back against the doorway and sighed. â€Å"But I can kinda tell what he's thinking. I guess it's because I'm nuts. Who would have thought that would come in handy, huh?† â€Å"Don't say that about yourself. You're saner than I am.† Molly laughed, and Theo could see her movie-star teeth shine in the light of the television. â€Å"You're a neurotic, Theo. A neurotic is someone who thinks something is wrong with him, but everyone else thinks he is normal; a psychotic thinks something's wrong with her. Take a poll of the locals, I think I'd come out in the latter category, don't you?† â€Å"Molly, this is really dangerous stuff you're messing with.† â€Å"He won't hurt me.† â€Å"It's not just that. You could go to jail just for having that machine gun, Molly. People are getting killed, aren't they?† â€Å"In a manner of speaking.† â€Å"That's what happened to Joseph Leander, and the guys working the drug lab, right? Your pal ate them?† â€Å"They were going to hurt you, and Steve was hungry. Seemed like great timing to me.† â€Å"Molly, that's murder!† â€Å"Theo! I'm nuts. What are they going to do to me?† Theo shrugged his shoulders and sat back on the couch. â€Å"I don't know what to do.† â€Å"You're not in a position to do anything right now. Get some rest.† Theo cradled his head in his hands. His cell phone, still in the pocket of his flannel shirt, began ringing. â€Å"I could sure use a hit right now.† â€Å"There's some Smurfs of Sanity in the cupboard over the sink – neuroleptics Dr. Val gave me, antipsychotics – they've done wonders for me.† â€Å"Obviously.† â€Å"Your phone is ringing.† Theo pulled out the phone, flipped it open, hit the answer button and watched as the incoming number ap peared on the display. It was Sheriff Burton's cell phone number. Theo hit disconnect. â€Å"I'm fucked,† Theo said. Molly picked up Theo's .357 Magnum from the table, held it on Theo, then picked up Joseph Leander's automatic. â€Å"I'll give these back before I go. I'm going to get some clean clothes and some girlie things out of my bedroom. You be okay here?† â€Å"Yeah, sure.† His head was still hung. He spoke into his lap. â€Å"You're bumming me out, Theo.† â€Å"Sorry.† Molly was gone from the room for only five minutes, in which time Theo tried to get a handle on what had happened. Molly returned with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She was wearing the Kendra costume, com-plete with thigh-high boots. Even in the dim light from the television, Theo could see a ragged scar over her breast. She caught him looking. â€Å"Ended my career,† she said. â€Å"I suppose now they could fix it, but it's a little late.† â€Å"I'm sorry,† Theo said. â€Å"I think you look beautiful.† She smiled and shifted both of the pistols to one hand. She'd left the assault rifle by the door and Theo hadn't even noticed. â€Å"You ever feel special, Theo?† â€Å"Special?† â€Å"Not like you're better than everyone else, just that you're different in a good way, like it makes a difference that you're on the planet? You ever feel that way?† â€Å"I don't know. No, not really.† â€Å"I had that for a while. Even though they were cheesy B movies and even though I had to do some humiliating things to get into them, I felt special, Theo. Then it went away. Well, now I feel that way again. That's why.† â€Å"Why what?† â€Å"You asked me why before. That's why I'm going back to Steve.† â€Å"Steve? You call him Steve?† â€Å"He looked like a Steve,† Molly said. â€Å"I have to go. I'll leave your guns in the bed of that red truck you stole. Don't try to follow, okay?† Theo nodded. â€Å"Molly, don't let it kill anybody else. Promise me that.† â€Å"Promise to leave us alone?† â€Å"I can't do that.† â€Å"Okay. Take care of yourself.† She grabbed the assault rifle, kicked open the door, and stepped out. Theo heard her go down the steps, pause, then come back up. She popped her head in the door. â€Å"I'm sorry you never felt special, Theo,† she said. Theo forced a smile. â€Å"Thanks, Molly.† Gabe Gabe stood in the foyer of Valerie Riordan's home, looking at his hiking boots, then the white carpet, then his boots again. Val had gone into the kitchen to get some wine. Skinner was wandering around outside. Gabe sat down on the marble floor, unlaced his boots, then slipped them off. He'd once been into a level-nine clean room at a biotech facility in San Jose, a place where the air was scrubbed and filtered down to the micron and you had to wear a plastic bunny suit with its own air umbilical to avoid contaminating the specimens. Strangely, he'd had a similar feeling to the one he was feeling now, which was: I am the harbinger of filth. Thank God Theo had made him shower and change before his date. Val came into the sunken living room carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She looked up at Gabe, who was standing at the edge of the stairs as if ready to wade into molten lava. â€Å"Well, come on in and have a seat,† Val said. Gabe took a tentative step. â€Å"Nice place,† he said. â€Å"Thanks, I still have a lot to do on it. I suppose I should just hire a decorator and have done with it, but I like finding pieces myself.† â€Å"Right,† Gabe said, taking another step. You could play handball in this room if you didn't mind destroying a lot of antiques. â€Å"It's a cabernet from Wild Horse Vineyard over the hill. I hope you like it.† Val poured the wine into stemmed bubble glasses. She took hers and sat down on the velvet couch, then raised her eyebrows as if to say, â€Å"Well?† Gabe joined her at the other end of the couch, then took a tentative sip of the wine. â€Å"It's nice.† â€Å"For a local cheapie,† Val said. An awkward silence passed between them. Val made a show of tasting the wine again, then said, â€Å"You don't really believe this stuff about a sea monster, do you, Gabe?† Gabe was relieved. She wanted to talk about work. He'd been afraid that she would want to talk about something else – anything else – and he didn't really know how. â€Å"Well, there are the tracks, which look very authentic, so if they are fake, whoever did them studied fossil tracks and replicated them perfectly. Then there's the timing of the rat migration, plus Theo and your patient. Estelle, was it?† Val set down her wine. â€Å"Gabe, I know you're a scientist, and a discovery like this could make you rich and famous, but I just don't believe there's a dinosaur in town.† â€Å"Rich and famous? I hadn't thought about it. I guess there would be some recognition, wouldn't there?† â€Å"Look, Gabe, you deal in hard facts, but every day I deal with the delusions and constructions of people's minds. They are just tracks on the ground, probably like that Bigfoot hoax in Washington a few years ago. Theo is a chronic drug user, and Estelle and her boyfriend Catfish are artist types. They all have overactive imaginations.† Gabe was put off by her judgment of Theo and the others. He thought for a second, then said, â€Å"As a biologist, I have a theory about imagination. I think it's pretty obvious that fear – fear of loud noises, fear of heights, the capacity to learn fear – is something that we've adapted over the years as a survival mechanism, and so is imagination. Everyone thinks that it was the big strong caveman who got the girl, and for the most part, that may have been true, but physical strength doesn't explain how our species cre-ated civilization. I think there was always some scrawny dreamer sitting at the edge of the firelight, who had the ability to imagine dangers, to look into the future in his imagination and see possibilities, and therefore sur-vived to pass his genes on to the next generation. When the big ape men ended up running off the cliff or getting killed while trying to beat a mas-todon into submission with a stick, the dreamer was standing back thinking, †˜Hey, that might work, but you need to run the mastodon off the cliff.' And, then he'd mate with the women left over after the go-getters got killed.† â€Å"So nerds rule,† Val said with a smile. â€Å"But if fear and imagination make you more highly evolved, then someone with paranoid delusions would be ruling the world.† Val was getting into the theory of it now. How strange to talk to a man who talked about ideas, not property and personal agendas. Val liked it. A lot. Gabe said, â€Å"Well, we didn't miss that by far with Hitler, did we? Evolution takes some missteps sometimes. Big teeth worked pretty well for a while, then they got too big. Mastodons' tusks got so large they would snap the animal's neck. And you've probably noticed that there are no saber-toothed cats around anymore.† â€Å"Okay, I'll buy that imagination is an evolutionary leap. But what about depression?† Talking about mental conditions, she couldn't help thinking about what she'd done to her patients. Her crimes circled in her mind, trying to get out. â€Å"Psychiatry is looking more and more at mental conditions from a physical point of view, so that fits. That's why we're treating depres-sion with drugs like Prozac. But what evolutionary purpose is there for depression?† â€Å"I've been thinking about that since you mentioned it at dinner,† Gabe said. He drained his wineglass and moved closer to her on the couch, as if by being closer, she would share in his excitement. He was in his element now. â€Å"A lot of animals besides humans get depressed. Higher mammals like dolphins and whales can die from it, but even rats seem to get the Blues. I can't figure out what purpose it serves. But in humans it might be like nearsightedness: civilization has protected a biological weakness that would have been weeded out by natural dangers or predators.† â€Å"Predators? How?† â€Å"I don't know. Depression might slow the prey down, make it react less quickly to danger. Who knows?† â€Å"So a predator might actually evolve that preyed on depressed animals?† Right and it's me, Val thought. If I haven't been preying on depressed people, what have I been doing? She suddenly felt ashamed of her home, of the pure materialism of it. Here was an incredibly bright man who was concerned with the pure pursuit of knowledge, and she had sold her integrity for some antiques and a Mercedes. Gabe poured himself another glass of wine and sat back now, thinking as he spoke. â€Å"Interesting idea. I suppose there could be some sort of chemical or behavioral stimulus that would trigger preying on the depressed. Low serotonin levels tend to raise libido, right? At least temporarily?† â€Å"Yes,† Val said. That's why the entire town has turned into horndogs, she thought. â€Å"Therefore,† Gabe continued, â€Å"you'd have more animals mating and passing on the depression gene. Nature tends to evolve mechanisms to remain in balance. A predator or a disease would naturally evolve to keep the depressed population down. Interesting, I've been feeling especially horny lately, I wonder if I'm depressed.† Gabe's eyes snapped open wide and he looked at Val with the full-blown terror of what he had just said. He gulped his wine, then said, â€Å"I'm sorry, I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Val couldn't stand it anymore. Gabe's faux pas opened the gate, and she stepped through it. â€Å"Gabe, we have to talk.† â€Å"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She grabbed his arm to stop him. â€Å"No, I have to tell you something.† Gabe braced himself for the worst. He'd fallen out of the lofty world of theory into the awkward, gritty world of first dates, and she was going to drop the â€Å"Don't get the wrong idea† bomb on him. She gripped his arm and her nails dug into his bicep hard enough to make him wince. She said, â€Å"A little over a month ago, I took almost a third of the people in Pine Cove off antidepressants.† â€Å"Huh?† That wasn't at all what he'd expected. â€Å"My God, why?† â€Å"Because of Bess Leander's suicide. Or what I thought was her suicide. I was just going through the motions in my practice. Writing prescriptions and collecting fees.† She explained about her arrangement with Winston Krauss and how the pharmacist had refused to put everyone back on the drugs. When she finished, to wait for his judgment, there were tears welling up in her eyes. He put his arms around her tentatively, hoping it was the right thing to do. â€Å"Why tell me this?† She melted against his chest. â€Å"Because I trust you and because I have to tell someone and because I need to figure out what to do. I don't want to go to jail, Gabe. Maybe all my patients didn't need to be on antidepressants, but a lot of them did.† She sobbed on his shoulder and he began to stroke her hair, then pushed up her chin and kissed her tears. â€Å"It'll be okay. It will.† She looked up into his eyes, as if looking for a hint of disdain, then not finding it, she kissed him hard and pulled him on top of her on the couch. A Higher Power And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? – Revelation 13:4 Twenty-three Steve What horrors can a dragon dream? A creature who has, in his own way, ruled the planet for millions of years, a creature for whom the mingy man mammals have built temples, a creature who has known no predator but time – what could he possibly dream that would frighten him? Call it the knowing? Under a stand of oak trees, sexually satisfied and with a bellyful of drug dealers, the dragon dreamed a vision of time past. The eternal now that he had always known suddenly had history. In the dream he saw himself as a larva, tucked into the protective pouch under his mother's tongue until it was safe to venture out under her watchful eye. He saw the hunting and the mating, the forms he had learned to mimic as his mercurial DNA evolved not through generations, but through regeneration of cells. He saw the mates he had eaten, the three young he had borne as a female, the last killed by a warmblood who sang the Blues. He remembered the chan-ging, not so long ago, from female to male, and he remembered all of it in pictures, not in mere instinctual patterns and conditioned responses. He saw these pictures in the dream, brought on by the strange mating with the warmblood, and he wondered why. For the first time in his five thousand years, he asked, Why? And the dream answered with a picture of all the oceans and swamps, the rivers and bogs and trenches and mountains beneath the sea, and they were all empty of his kind. As sure as if he were floating through the cold black at the end of the universe, where light gives up hope and time chases its tail until it dies from exhaustion, he was alone. Sex does that to some guys. Val â€Å"Oh my God, the rat brains!† Gabe shouted. It was a different response to lovemaking. Val wasn't sure that she might not be hurt, feeling vulnerable as she was, with her knees in the vicinity of her ears, a biologist on top of her, and her panty hose waving off one foot like a tattered battle flag. Gabe collapsed into her arms and she looked over his shoulder to the coffee table to check that they hadn't kicked the wineglasses off onto the carpet. â€Å"Are you okay?† she asked, a little breathless. â€Å"I'm sorry, but I just realized what's going on with this creature.† â€Å"That's what you were thinking about?† Yes, her feelings were definitely hurt. â€Å"No, not during. It came to me in a flash right after. Somehow the creature can attract mammals with lower than normal serotonin levels. And you've got, what, a third of the population running around in antidepressant withdrawal?† She was pissed now, not hurt. She dumped him off her onto the floor, stood up, pulled her skirt down, and stepped away. He scrambled into his pants and looked around for his shirt, which lay in shreds behind the couch. He had a tan that ended at the neckline and just below the shoulders; the rest of him was milk white. He looked up at her from the gap between the couch and the coffee table with a pleading in his eyes, as if he were looking up from a coffin in which he was about to be buried alive. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. He wasn't looking her in the eye, and Val suddenly realized that he was talking to her exposed breasts. She pulled her blouse closed, and a battery of insults rose in her mind, ready to be fired, but all of them were mean-spirited and would serve to do nothing but make them both feel ashamed. He was who he was, and he was honest and real, and she knew that he hadn't meant to hurt her. So she cried. Thinking, Great, crying is what got me into this in the first place. She plopped down on the couch with her face in her hands. Gabe moved to her side and put his arm around her. â€Å"I'm really sorry. I'm not very good at this sort of thing.† â€Å"You're fine. It's just too much.† â€Å"I should go.† He started to stand. She caught his arm in a death grip. â€Å"You go and I'll hunt you down and kill you like a rabid dog.† â€Å"I'll stay.† â€Å"No go,† she said. â€Å"I understand.† â€Å"Okay, I'll go.† â€Å"Don't you dare.† She threw her arms around him and kissed him hard, pulling him back down onto the couch, and within seconds they were all over each other again. That's it, she thought, no more crying. It's the crying that does it. This guy is aroused by my pain. But soon they lay in a panting sweaty pile on the floor and the idea of crying was light-years away. And this time Gabe said, â€Å"That was wonderful.† Val noticed a wineglass overturned by her head, a cabernet stain bleeding over the carpet. â€Å"Is it salt or club soda?† Gabe pulled away far enough to look into her eyes and saw that she was looking at the stained carpet. â€Å"Salt and cold water, I think. Or is that blood?† A drop of sweat dripped off his forehead onto her lips. She looked at him. â€Å"You weren't thinking about that creature that doesn't exist, were you?† â€Å"Just you.† She smiled. â€Å"Really?† â€Å"And a weed-whacker, for some reason.† â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"Uh, yes, I'm kidding. I was only thinking of you.† â€Å"So you don't think I'm a horrible person for what I've done?† â€Å"You were trying to do what you thought was right. How could that be horrible?† â€Å"I feel horrible.† â€Å"It's been a long time. I'm out of practice.† â€Å"No, not about this. About my patients. You really think something could be preying on them?† â€Å"It's just a theory. There may not even be a creature.† â€Å"But what if there is? Shouldn't we call the National Guard or something?† â€Å"I was thinking of calling Theo.† â€Å"Theo isn't even a real cop.† â€Å"He deserves to know.† They lay there in silence for a few minutes, staring at the spreading stain on the carpet, feeling the sweat run down their ribs, and listening to the beat of each other's hearts. â€Å"Gabe?† Val whispered. â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Maybe we should go to couples' counseling.† â€Å"Should we get dressed first?† â€Å"You were serious about the weed-whacker, weren't you?† â€Å"I don't know where that image came from.† â€Å"There's supposed to be a good couples' guy in San Junipero, unless you'd rather go to a woman counselor.† â€Å"I thought we were going to call the National Guard.† â€Å"Only if it comes to that,† Val said. Thinking, When we tell the shrink about this, I'm leaving out the part about the wine spilling. Theo Is there anything more irritating than people who have just been laid? Especially when you have not. Not for a long time. Oh, it was obvious as soon as they came through Molly's front door, waking Theo for the second time that night: Gabe's grin looking like the oversized grill on an old Chrysler, Val Riordan wearing jeans and almost no makeup; the both of them giddy and giggling and blushing like children. Theo wanted to puke. He was happy for them, but he wanted to puke. â€Å"What?† Theo said. Gabe was obviously amped and trying not to show it. He put his hands in his pockets to keep from waving them around. â€Å"I† – he looked at Val and smiled – â€Å"we think that this creature, if it exists, may be attracted to prey with low serum serotonin levels.† Gabe bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for his statement to sink in. Theo sat there, staring at him, with no discernible change in expres-sion from the weariness he'd worn since they came through the door. He guessed that he was supposed to say something now. â€Å"Molly was here,† Theo said. â€Å"The creature exists. It ate Mikey Plotznik, and Joseph Leander, and who knows who else? She said it's a dragon.† Gabe's grin dropped. â€Å"That's great. I mean, that's horrible, but it's great from a scientific point of view. I have another theory about this species. I think it has some specialized mechanism to affect its prey. Have you been horny lately?† â€Å"There's no need to be arrogant, Gabe. I'm glad you two had a good time, but there's no need to rub it in.† â€Å"No no, you don't get it.† Gabe went on to explain about Val Riordan's decision to take her patients off antidepressants and how the lowering of serotonin levels could lead to increased libido. â€Å"So Pine Cove has been full of horny people.† â€Å"Right,† Theo said. â€Å"And I still can't get a date.† Val Riordan laughed and Theo glared at her. Gabe said, â€Å"The rats I found alive near this trailer, where we think the creature might have been, were mating when I found them. There are some species of carnivorous plants that give off a sex pheromone that attracts their prey. In some species, the behavior of the male – a display, a dance, a scent – will stimulate the ovaries in the female of the species without any physical contact. I think that's what's happened to us.† â€Å"Our ovaries are being stimulated?† Theo rubbed sleep from his eyes. â€Å"I gotta be honest with you, Gabe. I'm not feeling it.† Val turned to Gabe. â€Å"That's not very romantic.† â€Å"It's incredibly exciting. This may be the most elegant predator that the world has ever seen.† Theo shook his head. â€Å"I have no home, no job, no car, there's probably a warrant out for my arrest, and you want me to be excited over the fact that we have a monster in town that makes you horny so he can eat you? Sorry, Gabe, I'm missing the positive side of this.† Val chimed in, â€Å"It may be the reason that you've been able to quit smoking pot so easily.† â€Å"Pardon me? Easily?† Theo wanted to jump off the couch and bitch-slap them both. â€Å"Were you ever able to go this long before?† â€Å"She could be right, Theo,† Gabe said. â€Å"If this thing affects serotonin, it could affect other neurotransmitters.† â€Å"Oh good,† Theo said. â€Å"Let's open a detox clinic. We'll feed half of the patients to the monster and the other half will recover. I can't wait.† â€Å"There's no need to be sarcastic,† Gabe said. â€Å"We're just trying to help.† â€Å"Help? Help with what? Bar fight? I can handle it. Skateboard theft? I'm on it. But my law enforcement experience hasn't prepared me for dealing with this.† â€Å"That's true, Gabe,† Val said. â€Å"Theo's little more than a rent-a-cop. Maybe we should call the sheriff or the FBI or the National Guard.† â€Å"And tell them what?† Theo asked. Rent-a-cop? I'm not even that now, he thought. â€Å"He has a point.† Gabe said. â€Å"We haven't seen anything.† â€Å"That old Blues singer has,† Val said. Theo nodded. â€Å"We need to find him. Maybe he'll†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He's living with Estelle Boyet,† Val said. â€Å"I have her address in my office.†

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools - CoSchedule Blog

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us! User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us!