The Power Of Consistency

A day came that there was  an argument between a  tortoise and rabbit about who was faster in movement. The rabbit was bosting also did...

A day came that there was an argument between a tortoise and rabbit about who was faster in movement. The rabbit was bosting also did the tortoise, a day came that they decided to settle the argument with a race. They both agreed on a route and started off the race.

Immediately the game started, the rabbit ran so fast ahead of the tortoise that when he saw that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he decided to sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race, as he rested under the tree a few minutes later he fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on and overtook and soon finished the race and emerge as the unchallenged champion. When the rabbit woke up and realized that he had lost the race, he was filled with anger.

The rabbit was highly disappointed at losing the race and he did some thinking, he realized that the reason why he lost the race was that he had been overconfident, careless and unconcerned.

He further said to himself that if he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. For that reason, he challenged the tortoise for another race which the tortoise also accepted.

This time, the rabbit did not make any mistake in this as he went all out and ran without stopping from the start to the end and won the race by several miles.

After losing the race the tortoise realized that there is no way he can beat the rabbit in a race the way it was currently arranged. He thought for a while and then challenged the rabbit to another race, but on a different route which the rabbit also agreed.

The tortoise and rabbit started off the race. The rabbit in keeping with his self-made commitment to consistently fast take off and ran at top speed until he came to a large and broad river.

The finishing line was a few kilometers on the other side of the river, the rabbit sat there wondering what to do, in the meantime, the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam and cross over the other side of the river, continued walking and finished the race.

In the cause of the competition the tortoise and rabbit, become pretty good friends. After realizing that the last race could have been much better if they had run as a team. 

So they decided to do the last race again, not as an individual anymore but as a team. As they started off the race, the rabbit carried the tortoise on his back till they get to the River Bank. And there the tortoise also took over and swam across the river with the rabbit on his back. 

After they might have crossed the river, the rabbit again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. And both of them felt a greater feeling of satisfaction than they did felt earlier.

The moral of the story:

• Is that slow and steady wins every race, it is the version of the story that we have all grown up with.

• fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It's good to be slow and steady, but it's better to be fast and reliable.

• It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies.

• Also, identify your core competency and the change the playing field to suit your core competency in other to triumph.

Remember unless you are able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, your performance will always be low, because there will always be situations at which you will do poorly and someone else does well.

Theme work is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a particular situation to take the mantle of leadership.