Herman School of Business
Are you a rabbit or a turtle?
We all remember the story of the hare and the tortoise. The world is full of both kinds of people. The second most important thing to know about the rabbit and the turtle is that neither one is better than the other. The first most important thing to know is which one you are.
In business and in life we must find our own pace and let the rhythm of our own personality guide us to success. Rabbits can’t be turtles and turtles can’t try running too fast. Remember, one is not better than the other, but both have certain characteristics that must be adhered too if you want to maximize your chances in the race.
How you do things in your childhood and your everyday life will tell you which you are, and most people over 21 intellectually get it. But where people fall short is in not understanding how to apply those characteristics to a relationship, or a career, or any project they take on to make the most of it. In brief terms you have to learn how to play to your own personal strengths and weaknesses.
Being a rabbit or a turtle means choosing a different path to success. Rabbits do not work well in large corporate environments because things take longer to change and the volatility they need to make quick gains and move on are not usually present there. Turtles don’t always do well in smaller environments where explosive growth or quick losses can occur and make their world miserable. Not to say that either can’t do well in these worlds on a short term basis, but the long run favors staying where you belong. Slow managed growth that requires patience and a thought process willing to wait out dips and not sell out on short gains would drive me crazy…hence I moved around a lot in different systems. But I did spend 22 years at one company, how was that possible for a rabbit?
Ahhh…that company bought and/or sold over 300 different businesses, so in essence although I stayed in one place and ran like crazy I covered much ground without ever leaving that spot. Sort of like running cross country is what a rabbit loves….but when it’s raining outside and the rabbit still wants to run, he should get a treadmill. My company was a treadmill, everyday I worked on deals, but the deals changed every two months…so it was like starting a new company all the time.
I knew I was a rabbit, and left jobs where my employers wanted a turtle, even though at times the pay raise they offered to stay looked pretty good. The reason I was so successful is that I kept changing until I found something that met all of my goals and then stayed with that for years. I wasn’t a rabbit who became a turtle, I was a rabbit who found a wide open field to run in, with no rain in sight.
- Posted: 10 January 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business failure
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