Motivational Stories about Life – The Tortoise and the Hare (Short Story # 31)

In the series of Motivational and inspirational Stories, today we are presenting an Inspirational Story – “The Tortoise and the Hare”. You all must have grown up hearing this story.  But in this post I am going to share with you a more interesting and new version of this story. So, without wasting much of your time, let us move straight to the inspiring story.

Inspirational Stories about Life – The Tortoise and the Hare (Short Story # 31)

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. But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story.

The story continues :

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realised 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 organisation, 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 organisational 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 story continues :

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised 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. For an example, 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 race once again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, in the river 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 – The Tortoise and the Hare (New version)

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.

To sum up, the story of the tortoise and the hare teaches us many things. Chief among them are

that

(1) fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
(2) work to your competencies;
(3) pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;
(4) never give up when faced with failure; and finally,
(5) compete against the situation – not against a rival.

Want to read More Motivational Stories?

1. The White Wolf vs Black Wolf
2. Puppies for Sale
3. The Retiring Carpenter
4. Self Appraisal
5. Everything Happens for Good

So that’s all from my side in this post. Over to you now, I and Invajy readers would love to hear your thoughts and learning from this inspirational story – The Tortoise and the Hare. Please feel free to share them in comments section.

I hope you have enjoyed this inspirational story.  If you have liked this story – The Tortoise and the Hare, please share with your friends and relatives at your favorite social media networks to help inspire others to remember its valuable lesson.