Being told that slow and steady wins the race, is sound advice indeed. This timeless tale leaves us with the hope that if we continue in a steady fashion, advancing forward, we will gain the result that we seek.
In certain terms, this is great advice, because one must make long term goals that require a “slow and steady wins the race” approach.
We are taught to emulate the tortoise, he is sound, consistent and steady.
The hare on the other hand. Now that guy,
he is a risky, arrogant one! Taking chances at every step and leaving opportunity for the tortoise to narrow the gap each time he does so.
At the starting line the race was his to be won. If there was a bookie, which there probably was, just got left out of the story, he would be raking in the odds against the tortoise and for the hare, with only the tortoises mom betting on her slow and steady son just to support his ludicrous idea of entering a race against a hare!
We are taught to be risk adverse and to continue forward in a manner that brings about small, but consistent results, with the promise that the hares around us will be left in our very low laying dust cloud.
What this story has never made clear and perhaps completely missed is that the hare did not lose for any other reason but that he was not racing against his own best record!
Had he not cared about who he was racing, and wanted to beat his own time, he would have smoked that tortoise and left tortoise mama out of pocket instead of the winner of a century.
The tortoise and the hare tale has been taught to us as kids from a one dimensional view point; ‘to not emulate the hare’, ‘to avoid being fast and opportunistic’, however I believe that a lot can be said about the hares mindset.
Looked at from this view the moral is rather obvious!
Had the little guy just focused on beating his own record the story would go as follows:
A tortoise and a hare set out to race against each other. The hare crushed it!
THE END.
Amore Legere
Konrad Bryczkowski