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 realised that he’d lost the race. Moral of the story: Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we have 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 Defect Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realised that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless & 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. Moral of the story: Fast & consistent will always beat the slow and steady.
