Compete Against The Situation

We all know the story of a tortoise and a hare. Once they had an argument about who was
faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and set
off. The hare ran briskly and shot ahead. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the
tortoise, he decided to take rest and fell asleep under a tree. The tortoise steadily overtook
the hare and soon finished the race, emerging as winner.

Moral 1: Slow and steady wins the race.

The hare was disappointed at loosing the race and he did some thinking. He realized that
he had lost the race only because he had been over-confident, careless and lazy. If he had
not taken things for granted, the tortoise could never have beaten him. So he challenged
the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, hare went all out, and ran
without stopping from start to finish. He won the race by several miles.

Moral 2: Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It is good to be
slow and steady but it is better to be fast and consistent.

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there is no way he could beat
the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while and
challenged the hare for another race, but on 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 river. The finishing line was a couple
of kms. on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wandering what to do. In the
mean time the tortoise got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking
and finished the race.

Moral 3: First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to
suit your core competency. Working on the basis of your strengths will not only get
you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

The story continues…

The hare and tortoise, by this time, had become good friends, and they did some thinking
together. They decided to run the race again, but this time, as a team. They started off,
and first the hare carried the tortoise on his back till the riverbank. Then 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 in fastest possible time.
They both felt a greater sense of happiness, satisfaction and success.

Moral 4: Individual core competency is good but harnessing each other’s core
competencies in a team is always better.
It is noteworthy that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. Failure is an
event; it is never permanent. In life when faced with a failure, sometimes it is appropriate
to change the strategy and try something different.

Moral 5: We perform far better when we compete against the situation rather than
against each other.