Rabbit and turtle story

Amazing version

Once upon a time a turtle and a rabbit had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. The turtle and rabbit both agreed on a route and started off the race. The rabbit shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the turtle. 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 the sleep. The turtle plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race. Emerging as the undisputed champ. The rabbit woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.

The moral of the story is that slow and stedy wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with, but our version of the stories continues.

The rabbit was disappointed at losing the race and he did some thinking. He realised that he’d lost the race only because he had been over confident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the turtle could have beaten him. So he challenged the turtle to another race. The turtle agreed. This time, the rabbit 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 stedy. It’s good to be slow and steady, but it’s better to be fast and reliable.

…..but the story does’t end here.

The turtle did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s no way he can beat the rabbit in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the rabbit to another race, but a slightly different route. The rabbit agreed. The turtle and rabbit started off. In keeping with his self – made commitment to be consistently fast, the rabbit took off and ran at top speed until came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.The rabbit sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the turtle 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.

The story still hasn’t ended.

The turtle and rabbit, by this time, had become pretty good friend and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So the turtle and rabbit decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the rabbit carried the turtle till the riverbank.

There, the turtle took over and swam across with the rabbit on his back. On the opposite bank, the rabbit again carried the turtle and they reached the finishing line together. Both the turtle and rabbit felt a greater sence 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.

 

Team work.