Short story the tortoise and the hare

In the series of Motivational and inspirational Stories, today we are presenting an Inspirational Story – “The Tortoise and the Hare”. You all must have grown up hearing this story.  But in this post I am going to share with you a more interesting and new version of this story. So, without wasting much of your time, let us move straight to the inspiring story.

Inspirational Stories about Life – The Tortoise and the Hare (Short Story # 31)

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 – The Tortoise and the Hare (New version)

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 tortoise and the hare teaches us many things. Chief among them are

that

(1) fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
(2) work to your competencies;
(3) pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;
(4) never give up when faced with failure; and finally,
(5) compete against the situation – not against a rival.

Want to read More Motivational Stories?

1. The White Wolf vs Black Wolf
2. Puppies for Sale
3. The Retiring Carpenter
4. Self Appraisal
5. Everything Happens for Good

So that’s all from my side in this post. Over to you now, I and Invajy readers would love to hear your thoughts and learning from this inspirational story – The Tortoise and the Hare. Please feel free to share them in comments section.

I hope you have enjoyed this inspirational story.  If you have liked this story – The Tortoise and the Hare, please share with your friends and relatives at your favorite social media networks to help inspire others to remember its valuable lesson.

There once was a speedy Hare who bragged about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing him boast, the Tortoise challenged him to a race. All the animals in the forest gathered to watch.

The Hare ran down the road for a while and then paused to rest. He looked back at the tortoise and cried out, "How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?"

The Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, "There is plenty of time to relax."

The Tortoise walked and walked, never ever stopping until he came to the finish line.

The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise that they woke up the Hare. The Hare stretched, yawned and began to run again, but it was too late. Tortoise had already crossed the finish line.

Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.

This is the story that we have all grown up with. But recently, two additions have been proposed to the story.

Addition 1

After being defeated by the tortoise, the hare did some soul-searching. He knew that though he had tried hard in the beginning, he was not consistent, and had grown overconfident. He was determined to undo his mistakes, and invited tortoise for another race. This time, the rabbit was careful to run the whole distance, and of course, emerged the winner.

Moral: Fast and consistent may be better than slow and steady.

Addition 2

Well, after emerging the loser in the second race, the tortoise thought long and hard. He knew that in any traditional terrain, the hare would win, if he was fast and consistent. Therefore, he thought of a non-traditional terrain for the race. Then he invited the rabbit for another race. This time the rabbit laughed out loud, thinking that the tortoise was out of his head. But the tortoise insisted that there should be another race and the terrain would be decided by the tortoise. The rabbit agreed to the idea.

The race began. The rabbit was leading in front, with the tortoise far back trundling along. Around half way through the race, they came across a river. The rabbit halted on the bank of the river, wondering how to cross the river. Meanwhile, the tortoise approached the river slowly, got in to the water, swam across, climbed up on the other bank, ran the last few kilometers, and won the race.

Moral: when your capabilities are below par, choose a playing ground that gives you a natural advantage.

What is the story of The Tortoise and the Hare about?

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