It has been a year since I last updated an article.
Let me start 2017 citing a closure to an old fable that endlessly confounded me!
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“Something
does not add up…” the king Sher Khan sipped his coffee, he was totally
perplexed. A tortoise had beaten a hare at a running race - again.
“You
know”, king said to his minister “I was a young cub when this race happened first.
I hardly knew as to what a hare was at the time. Must be an easy prey I thought
– it was beaten by a tortoise at a running race after all. My impression
changed completely when I tried hunting one. Those things can run I tell you…”
“Yeah,
slow and steady wins the race – that is the lesson”, said the minister. “Yeah
yeah" said the king clearly unimpressed. "Please get me an appointment with the Elephant. I need some counsel”.
“Generations
have used this story to extol the virtues of the tortoise – the steady one”,
said the wise old Elephant, “and criticise the hare – the lazy one. Every time
we take the old lesson of ‘slow & steady’, and judge the hare as lazy.
We never
think as to why such a skilled runner loses to a slow tortoise? No one before
you has sought to understand. I am happy that you are not ready to brand him as
a lazy under performer.”
“What is
your guidance”?
“Every
animal is not made for every race. Get his strengths assessed, if you need to
unravel the truth.”
The King
instructed his minister to speak to the Hare and assess his strengths. Though sceptical initially, he nevertheless implemented the suggestions. The result of
the changes astonished him! A month down the line, he went back to the
Elephant.
“It turns
out, the hare is not a slouch. His biggest strength is Competitiveness. We realised that the tortoise race failed to inspire him. He needed a worthy
opponent – someone faster than him. He needed a real challenge!
We have
been training him for sprint races with other hares and faster animals. His
performance has improved by leaps and bounds. In him, we have a potential
sprinting champion” beamed the king.
“So what
the moral of the story, dear king?”.
“The moral
is: not slow and steady, but playing to your strengths wins the race!”
