Hare n Tortoise : Story with a Twist

The Story we all know:

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 of the story is that slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.

The Story Continues:

But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues. 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 (doesn't it happen in the boxing world all time...Ali vs. Frazier for instance?). 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 of the story?

Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. If you have two people in your organization, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable.

But the story doesn't end here

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way he 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 of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency. In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement. 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 of the story?

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. There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

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.

Plese leave your comments if you like this.....

Facts to Know

• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
• The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
• The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
• There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
• You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
• It is impossible to lick your elbow.
• People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
• It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
• If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history.

o Spades - King David
o Clubs - Alexander the Great
o Hearts - Charlemagne
o Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. - All invented by women.
• Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. - Honey
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• All polar bears are left handed.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
• Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
• The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
• The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
• Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
• Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.