Tortoise And Hare Inspirational Teamwork Story
This is an age-old fable of the tortoise and hare race.
Everyone thinks they know who won the race…
But do you know the rest of the story?
1. 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. The tortoise and hare
both 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.
2. But the story actually 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. 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 perform better than the
slow, methodical chap.
It's good to be slow and steady; but speed and dependability wins.
