The hole in the doughnut!
If the hare had a sinful nature like man, then after crossing the river on
the turtle's back, he would have left the turtle in the dust and "won the
race".
Sad to say, even born again rabits and turtles too often are only in the
race with an attitude of "What's in it for me?"
In real Christian spiritual practice, each one should run to win the race
only to please God and in so doing, help their fellow runners out of a
spirit of love for God and His rules. So even if the rabit does or does not
cooperate, the turtle wins when he runs focusing on God's finishline--as
does the rabit when he pursues the same goal.
So much for running around in circles! Or, is it doughnut holes?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Ferguson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:01 AM
Subject: The Tortoise And The Hare
> >X-PRTC-MailScanner-From: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>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.
>
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