A vain hare lived in a forest. It always tickled him to think that his friend, the tortoise, could only crawl centimeter by centimeter. Ah, that ugly shell! That must be weighing him down so much, he thought, as he hopped lightly across the field.
Then he noticed the tortoise looking at him without as much as lifting his neck. The hare said derisively, “No wonder your back has ballooned up so much. You ought to be running about, not sleeping all the time!”
The tortoise said nothing, just pulled his head further into himself as if in shame.
The hare said, “Let’s have a race. That would put some competitiveness into your lazy head. No, you are not saying ‘No’. Whoever reaches that banyan tree first is the winner,” he said pointing to a huge Banyan tree with hundreds of roots from the sprawling branches reaching out to the ground. “Instead of sleeping here, you may sleep out there. It will be cooler. Why, you loser! already scared?”
The words stung the tortoise. Any challenge has to be met; you cannot run away…er.. walk away from it. Win or lose, fight you must. The tortoise walked resolutely to the hare. “Say 1-2-3,” he said, meeting the hare in the eye.
The hare hopped fast with spring in every jump. The wind blew hard in his face, and it was fun. “Where is that darn tortoise,” he thought suddenly, as he swung back to take a look.
The tortoise had barely moved a few feet from where they had started. “This is no fun,” thought the hare, “Let me wait till that snail comes closer. All I need is a few more leaps to reach that tree.”
The hare then cooled his heels under a walnut tree, and picked up a few nuts. He munched them lazily, waiting for the tortoise to catch up. Presently, he closed his eyes, and before long, sank into a peaceful slumber.
Suddenly, the hare was startled out of his sleep by the strange sounding gleeful glugs of the tortoise. He strained his neck, only to see the tortoise, raising his front paws and dancing merrily.
The hare was very ashamed. He brooded over his failure. He realized that he shouldn’t have rested till he attained his goals. He had been overconfident and lax.
Having learned his lessons, he now swore that he would avenge his defeat in a second race.
The tortoise had not taken his win lightly. It was alright that he took the adage ‘Slow and steady wins the race’ that his mother had taught him very seriously. But what if the hare had applied it too? In that case, his own chances of winning would be next to nil.
Just then, the hare approached him and challenged him to a new round of race.
The tortoise said tactfully, “Of course, of course. But let me choose the avenue his time,” he said. Pointing to a distant hill, the tortoise said, “That would be our finish line.”
The hare was jubilant, and off he ran as soon as the prompt signal for start was given. What he had failed to realize that the hill was on the other side of a small stream. While he stood at the bank wondering what to do, the tortoise dived in and quickly swam to the shore and continued plodding to the winning point, without even looking back.
The hare had more soul-searching to do. He had to admire the cleverness of the tortoise who had identified his core competency and had chosen the playing field accordingly. On the other hand, he had still remained over-confident about learning his lessons. He had not evaluated the risks and costs involved.
The tortoise knew that hare had his strengths and he wouldn’t be able to win every time. So he decided to befriend the hare. The two had a heart-to-heart talk. They decided they would work as a team. After all, both could win this way. The tortoise could save on time, and the hare would to lay his hand on more crunchy nuts that were available on the other bank.
They started off once again, with the hare carrying the tortoise till they reached the stream and the tortoise swimming across the stream with the hare on his back.
Both were delighted. They realized that by working as a team, they were able to harness each other’s core competencies to mutual advantage. Both had assumed leadership when the circumstances were right for them, and took a back seat when another team member took over.
For all the errors of judgement, the hare was not a quitter. He persisted long enough to learn his lessons and worked harder after every defeat. The tortoise did his self appraisal well too. He had changed his strategy to suit the situation.
There was another lesson they had learned, and we can learn that too. When we start competing against the situation and not against a rival – real or imagined, we make best use of our time and resources, and perform far better.
The Hare and The Tortoise Story: Some Management Lessons
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