We all know the proverbial story, and when asked, almost everyone will tell you the Tortoise won. But how can it be ? The Hare is a much faster animal than the Tortoise. The answer could range from the Hare was lazy to over confident.

I did an extended version of the story while doing my Communication & Leadership Manual Project #5 at my Toastmasters Club meeting, and here is how it went ….“… at the end of the race, all the reporters of the animal kingdom crowded around the tortoise and asked him, how did he win. All the tortoise said was “ … I…(pant..pant) I just focused on the finishing line and everything else went blur… and before I know it, I was already at the finishing line”. When they directed the question to the Hare, all the Hare could say was “no comment”.

At that very moment, the old sage Owl flew down from his perch, and said “ I know why did the Hare lost”. He paused for a moment and everyone was starring at him eager to know the answer. He then said “ Mr. Hare lost because he picked the wrong competitor”. Silence came, you can even hear the goats dropping droppings. Then the whole animal kingdom shook, as everyone gave the typical sound of enlightenment“…aaawwwwwwwwwww”. This story gave me 2 very important messages.

The first one is “Competition is healthy; it brings out the best in us. If the Hare had chosen a cat to race with, he would have given his best in the race. If he had won, he would have had the sweetest moment in his life and have a higher self esteem. If he had lost, it would still be alright, because the cat is a formidable opponent. Whereas for the Tortoise, he ran as fast as he could. He had probably beaten his own record, or not surprisingly might have broken the fastest tortoise ever record too.

The second message is “Take time to ponder”. Don’t you agree that there are so many things we can learn from this simple fable? So next time, when asked “Tortoise and Hare had a race, who won?”, don’t just say “ Hare lorrr…” (smile)