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>THIS IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!
>
>The Tortoise And The Hare
>
>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. It 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 climb the organizational 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 tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized 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.
>
>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 do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
>
>They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till 
>the riverbank.
>
>There, 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
>finish line together.
>
>They both felt a greater sense 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.
>
>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 hare and tortoise teaches us many 
>things. Chief among them are that fast
>and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work
>to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will 
>always beat individual
>performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally,
>compete against the situation - not against a rival.