Once
upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They
decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started
off the race.
The
hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far
ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax
before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.
The
tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the
undisputed champ.
The
hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.
The
moral - "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story
that we've all grown up with."
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
There
are few more interesting things.....it continues as follows......
The
hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He
realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident,
careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the
tortoise could have beaten
him.
So he challenged the tortoise to another race.
The
tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from
start to finish. He won by several miles.
The
moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's
good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."
THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE
The
tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can
beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a
while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different
route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment
to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to
a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side
of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do.
In
the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the
opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.
The
moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing
field to suit your core competency."
THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED
The
hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they
did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been
run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a
team this time.
They
started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank.
There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the
opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the
finishing line together.
They
both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
The
moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core
competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's
core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be
situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork
is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant
core competency for a situation take leadership.
Note
that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided
to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed
his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could.
In
life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and
put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try
something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
The
hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against
a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far
better.
To
sum up - the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say: Chief among them
are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your
competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual
performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally, compete against
the situation - not against a rival.
