The Unstoppable Tortoise
The Aesop’s tale, The Tortoise and the Hare, is great analogy of the 6P Focus and an Unstoppable approach to the journey of life. The two main characters of the story are the tortoise and the hare. The hare is an overconfident and arrogant braggart while the tortoise is disciplined and unassuming. The hare incessantly crows about his natural abilities, talents, and skills to anyone that will listen. The hare teases and taunts the tortoise because he is slow, methodical, and not prone to whimsy. The tortoise is an easy target for the hare.
Unlike the hare, the tortoise is self-confident and self-assured in his ability but does not brag on his abilities, talents, and skills. When the race starts, the hare is off quickly and is far ahead of the plodding tortoise. With an overwhelming lead, the hare makes hasty and unwise decisions to nap and eat instead of winning the race. The tortoise continues with his personal goal to win the race and is not distracted or deterred. In the end, the hare’s decisions cost him the race and his pride.
To me, the hare represents a person with natural gifts and talents but uses them in an undisciplined and frivolous manner. The hare takes for granted his endowed talents, abilities, and skills and does not use a disciplined approach to hone them for future use. The hare also makes a critical mistake at the start of the race. He sees the race as sprint to the finish instead of a journey. The hare, who was goaded the tortoise into the race and bragged to all the animals that he can beat the tortoise, fails to set a goal to win the race but instead assumes he will win. Repeatedly in the story, the hare makes life choices without a full understanding of the second, third, and fourth order of effect of those decisions. His failure to understand the effects and outcomes of his decisions is why he fails to win the race.
The tortoise, on the other hand, realizes that he must build upon what he is gifted with and grow, develop, and reinvent himself to be unstoppable. He realizes that this race is a life journey and not a sprint and in order to win he cannot rely just on talent. The tortoise does not possess the talents and capabilities of the hare but during his journey, he hones and forges the talents and skills he needs to win. At the beginning of the race he systematically and logically sets a long-term goal to win the race despite the capabilities of the hare. All of his decisions and actions point one goal—win the race of life. The tortoise’s 6P Focus gives him an unstoppable purpose and a single-mindedness of action. He establishes actionable goals, makes well thought out decisions, and takes deliberate actions to achieve his victory. Through his persistence, perseverance, and performance he overcomes the odds and wins the race.
