How Aesop ruined my life
It was his fable about the Tortoise and Hare.
I had learned from this that Slow and Steady Wins the Race!
My whole life was based on this… seriously. This meme is something I learned back in Toledo, in my first few years of school.
I kept this story in mind for everything. When I started anything, I would think about the goal. I would plot a course, and know I would have to make corrections along the way. The trick was to begin with the end in mind. (Thanks for that Stephen Covey) As long as I knew the goal, I would get there… hell or high water.
When I started running in 10k races and marathons, I never really worked on speed.
I even thought about starting a running club – Team Tortoise, whose tagline was To Finish is To Win!
I had a patch on my backpack that had a tortoise on it and the words, “I may be slow, but I’m ahead of you!”
I never thought about coming in first place. I never thought about training for speed. That’s all rabbit thought. I only thought about continuous improvement. A worthy goal, indeed… but incremental, never leaping ahead. But, as long as I came out of my shell and stuck my neck out, I would make progress.
This mentality is deeply ingrained. It keeps me slow and sluggish in all things. Sadly, Team Tortoise does not a good Entrepreneur make! Agility and quick starts are needed.
Something must change, rather, somebody…
I think of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where no matter what Bugs did, the Tortoise beat him.
At the end, it was revealed that the Tortoise had a rocket under his shell. (Yay technology!) THAT is the Tortoise I need to become.
Gotta shift into a new paradigm.
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