Working Smarter

Working on the basis of your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

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 set off. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he fell asleep under a tree.

The tortoise overtook the hare and soon finished the race , emerging as winner. The hare woke up and realised that he had lost the race. 

Moral 1: Slow and steady wins the race.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some thinking. He realised 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 not 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. Moral 2: Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It”s good to be slow and steady, but it”s better to be fast and consistent.

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there”s no way he could 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 river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime, the tortoise got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking, and finished the race.