The Goal, By Eliyahu M. Hofstede

After our class viewing of the Age of Champions as well as reading the numerous articles including one by Rowe & Kahn, it is clear that there is a variety of ways people can view the term “aging successfully.” A variety of gerontologists have similarities and differences in their definition of the term, and this paper will compare some of the athletes from the film these definitions.

The theme of suffering will be talked about throughout this essay. Even though it isn’t the most pleasant topic to talk about, it is part of our lives. The dictionary defines suffering as “The state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship.” This essay will examine suffering and how it shows up in different printed sources, as well as in my personal life.

All human relationships are complicated, there are many instances in the Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, which portrays the complexity of human character. Throughout the book, the Amir is burden with his own guilt from his childhood summer of nineteen seventy-five . As the book progresses the reader is forced to grapple with the meaning if redemption and the true meaning of family. Many readers have often debated whether Amir has actually attained redemption for his actions; however through the latter half of the novel the reader comes to understand that Amir does in fact redeem himself.

One more time, Jonah explained Alex another concept. Jonah explained, “A bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it. A non-bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand placed on it”. Alex with the help of his team could identify the bottleneck in the plant and organized the

The “self” is notion of oneself and qualities that distinguishes one individual from the other individuals. Self is consist of perspectives, characteristics, emotion and personalities of a person that makes them different from others. However, Robert Thurman implies that the "self" does not actually exist, and individuals have to become selfless in order to achieve a “fulfilling life.” He uses the word “pretend self” to describe that people 's identities are inherently false identities since individuals can control it. Therefore, according to Thurman in order to become the true self, individuals have to become “selfless”. Thurman discusses the importance of achieving the state of “selflessness” to find inner peace in his excerpt “Wisdom.” He encourages individuals to practice self-exploration, which can lead individual to give up their authentic self for the wellfare of others’ lives. become a “selfless” person, which then allows individuals to become flexible to change instead of staying fixated. On the other hand Beth Loffreda in her essay “Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder.” describes the effects of the violent act have on the town of Laramie. Loffreda discusses the town residents’ self-perception and how the minority community reacted to the murder of Matt Shepard.In contrast to Thurman 's’ argument, Loffreda describes the change in perspectives and actions of the residents, indicating that an individual 's “self” is not fixated

Throughout the entirety of the book, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, author Eliyahu M. Goldratt focuses on demonstrating the importance of the Theory of Constraints and what corporations should do in order to increase profits. A major term used throughout the novel is “throughput,” which according to the text, is “the rate at which the system generates money through sales” (Goldratt 60). Once a bottleneck machine in a production process is identified, there are multiple ways to increase throughput without expanding the physical capacity of the machine.

The Goal, a fictional novel written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, introduces the reader to a plant manager of a production plant within the UniCo Manufacturing group, Alex Rogo, who is experiencing consistent problems in meeting targeted production levels. Faced with an ultimatum, ta turn his plant profitable in three months, Rogo seeks guidance from a distant acquaintance of his, Jonah, an old physics professor. This consultancy introduces concepts that will constitute cornerstones of Rogo’s strategy to turn the plant around. These concepts are also applied successfully by Rogo in the alternative story-line of his marital life.

The novel “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini describes the life of a boy, Amir. Amir’s best friend and brother (although that part isn’t known until towards the end), Hassan, plays a major role in Amir’s life and how he grows up. Hosseini portrays many sacrifices that are made by Hassan and Amir. Additionally, Amir seeks redemption throughout much of the novel. By using first person point of view, readers are able to connect with Amir and understand his pain and yearning for a way to be redeemed. By using symbols, Hosseini is able to connect events within the book and with historical events that provide a deeper meaning to the book’s events. Finally, by using selection of detail, Hosseini makes important things stand out and helps

In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we learn a lot about Amir the main character, and Hassan his servant/brother. In the beginning Hassan and Amir’s relationship was one of brotherly love despite the fact that Hassan was a Hazara and Amir a Pashtun. Back in the 1970’s race and religion played a big part in Kabul and these two races were not suppose to have relationships unless it was owner (Pashtun) and servant (Hazara). Baba Amir’s father had an affair with Hassan’s mother, but it was kept a secret until one day Rahim Khan let’s Amir know the whole truth. Hassan a loving, and loyal servant to Amir sacrifices himself many times for Amir, while Amir was disloyal, and cruel. Once Amir finds out the truth he embarks on a journey of

The novel “The Goal” by Eli Goldratt is an inspiring story of a manufacturing plant that seems to need some help staying afloat. The story explains the “Theory of Constraints” and concentrates on bottlenecks and constraints.

When goals are established there are a set of rules put in place to meet a certain criteria. Depending on the severity of the goal, one could establish policies that go against the system. In the novel “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt, Alex does just that. Alex the main character of the novel is put in between a rock and a hard place. There are only two ways out, which are to either quit or to fix the problems in a span of 6 months. There are numerous ways and processes that are implemented for the factory to get out of the slump, but being that this is from a managers perspective I have gained knowledge on three major ideas that will definitely impact my managerial thinking for the rest of my life. Those are Mentorship, Fact Finding, and Policies.

The imagery, styles and the concerns used in the novel foreshadows the rape scene that happened in the grand kite tournament of 1975 which sets a cycle of betrayal and redemption into motion, around which the story revolves. The rape scene represents the entire novel; it’s related to Amir’s life as he spends the whole novel dealing with the incident, which affects his entire life. It also symbolises the racism in Afghanistan, and how the country is dealing with such an issue, beauty of the Afghanistan is fading just like Hassan and Amir’s friendship.

Connection is one of the most basic human needs that people require in order to live content and prosperous lives. It may not seem as vital in comparison to other primal needs such as sustenance or shelter, but it is absolutely essential in order to find the path to hope and happiness. In Khaled Hosseini’s book The Kite Runner, the author weaved a stirring tale of loyalty and betrayal, of how the bonds that bind could also easily be severed when one submits to fear and cowardice. The majority of this enthralling novel was focused on the main character Amir and his struggle to rein in the guilt he experienced after allowing his best friend Hassan to be raped. The book also revolved around Amir’s strained father-son relationship with Baba, his passion for writing which was only ever encouraged by Baba’s best friend, Rahim Khan and the gripping account of how he eventually ended up finding redemption for his past transgressions by saving the life of Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Throughout his life, Amir was heavily influenced by his relationships with Baba, Rahim Khan, Sohrab and Hassan, who all for better or worse, had a significant impact on the person he grew up to be.

Mistakes come with consequences that may follow one for the rest of their life. In the novel, The Kite Runner, Amir, the protagonist, makes rash decisions that come to haunt him and cause him to think twice about himself. After finding out that Hassan, his best friend and half brother had been shot by a Talib, he decides to save the last of his family in Afghanistan which is to find Hassan’s son, his nephew, Sohrab. Amir frees himself from guilt by straightening out his wrong doings and giving back to Hassan. The parallels in this well written novel used by the author, Khaled Hosseini, portray Amir’s journey of achieving redemption that he deserves.

Alex was able to identify the bottleneck within the plant with the help of his friend Jonah. The necessary adjustments were made and the plant has shown tremendous improvement in less than the time given. According to, King, P. L. (2011). “Managing bottlenecks is especially important in process operations. In order to manage bottlenecks appropriately, it is necessary to identify where they exist.” Alex now meets with management to give a full report of the plant performance. After getting over some bumps in the meeting, the overall decision was made to keep the plant open and in addition, Alex was offered the positon to manage the division.