A Successful Treasury: Fill & Download for Free

I have worked quite closely with the Treasury, and the successful Treasury people I have known have been:Analytical thinkers, with good attention to detailRelatively comfortable with conflict, and calculating about itStrongly numerate, many with (unsurprisingly) an economics or finance backgroundAmbitious - the Treasury knows it is the department with the powerConfident communicators of complex ideasSuccess in the Treasury looks a lot like success at a global accounting or business consulting firm, but with perhaps a more measured and long-term approach to strategy.

Valentine Strasser,Strasser was a young officer in the military of Sierra Leone, who staged a successful coup against the country’s dictator in 1992, all while just turning 25 years old.The people of Sierra Leone were happy to have new leadership and their economy did grow.Unfortunately, after 8 months, the honeymoon was over, and things were just like they had been before the coup as 29 people were accused of plotting a coup and executed.Strasser and his other young officers would live lavish lifestyles with the finest suits, cars, jewels, and vacations at the expense of the nation’s treasury.In order to appease the people and the UN, Strasser and his friends allowed “elections” which was basically putting their own puppets in charge.In 1996, Strasser himself would be removed from power in a coup by his own deputy.He was allowed to live in The UK and tried to get himself a college degree. He wasn’t allowed to finish with being a military dictator and a human rights violator and all.He would fall into alcoholism and move to Gambia, in which he was deported because they feared he would stage a coup.The Former dictator now lives with his Mother in poverty.That is what I sure call, peaking too soon.Links:Africa's youngest dictator,Valentine Strasser is now a pauperValentine Strasser - Wikipedia

Since no one wrote on Chinese history, allow me to present….. the Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后）Born into the eminent Yehenara clan, Cixi was selected to enter the palace, and become one of Emperor Xianfeng’s many concubines. As he was sickly, being the only literate one amongst his wives, Cixi assisted in his political affairs until his death.As her son the Emperor Tongzhi was only a child when he ascended the throne, Cixi served as a regent. As women were not allowed to meddle in political affairs, she would sit behind a curtain as she listened in during the morning assembly. Notably, there were other regents too but Cixi ousted them all. There was no mistake, Cixi was the one who had political power. She briefly handed power back to Tongzhi when he was a teenager, but unlike his ancestor Emperor Kangxi (who was educated by his grandmother the Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang), little had been done to prepare the boy. He lacked political foresight, clashed with his ministers (notably by wanting to restore the Old Summer Palace when the country faced bankruptcy) and finally died at the age of 18 from smallpox.Tongzhi left no son behind, which sparked a succession crisis. So Cixi plucked her nephew Guangxu from his mother’s arms just when he was a baby, and installed him as Emperor. Long live the Emperor, while she continued to rule from behind the curtain.Similar to his ill-fated predecessor, Guangxu was a weak man and not given much say in political affairs. His favourite concubine Consort Zhen (see picture above) encouraged him to be his own man. Of course Cixi hated her guts! Consort Zhen was publicly beaten for insinuating that Cixi was a power-hungry woman who usurped her adoptive son’s political power. Later, when the Japanese invaded, Cixi ordered that Consort Zhen be thrown into a well. The young consort drowned as a result and it was said the distraught emperor never touched another woman again.As for the country, Cixi accelerated the Qing dynasty’s demise by using no small part of the country’s treasury for her own lavish lifestyle. She bathed using milk and accumulated vast amounts of jewels. This was at a time of political instability and she spent military funds to make herself look pretty. It was said it contributed to the defeat during the 1895 Japanese invasion and the subsequent loss of Taiwan.No wonder there were multiple attempts on her life! Though she died at age 72 from illness.