Pride Before the Fall

Some people do many great things, yet only some of them are afflicted with pride. Why is that?
For that matter, what is pride?

Pride is being the star of your own version of history; pride is set in one's own personal heroic myth: one is a celebrity, a super-smart CEO, a person with unusual sense whose instant opinions are gold; all scenarios and scripts we write for ourselves.
As such, there is no place for the Irony of Events in the Prideful Script. We do not write that we are miserable failures. We are not writing tragedy or tragi-comedy.
Yet there is always Irony: the banking industry will always collapse, the tower of Babel will always fall, Job will always weather the storm from sun to dark and back to sun again, for Pride is a story that we know intrinsically and inherently needs its own Nemesis. In our hearts, in our DNA we sense the hubristic balance of Arrogance and Nemesis.

Pride is a state of mind. That is why it goes before a fall. The prideful mind sets itself up in opposition to Irony and Reversal, in effect, perfectly setting the stage for itself to slip on the banana peel lying there on the ground. Pride takes the time and effort to not only dress well for the event, but sends out bulletins and commentaries, celebrating its genius, and wears a new top hat to the event. All this time, the banana peel awaits, since it is the inevitable return to average of the self-created genius.

(Without pride, there are still bad things that happen, but they occur in their own time and way. Pride, however, has a come-uppance which is part of the story "Pride Goeth Before...".
Pride and Arrogance create their own Nemeses and Arch-Enemies, while the everyday humdrum of good works and deeds pilots their boat across the sea, stormy or calm.

Observe, please, that Nemesis means "just retribution". In our day, we do not believe in retribution, and we all run crazy schemes and treasons. This indicates we are not believers. Anyone who is godly knows that "justice" is not an empty word.)