This content was created by Glen Gould. This content was uploaded by Glen Gould. This is a YouTube video titled "The Tortoise, The Hare, and The Bookie" (uploaded 2018-06-18) containing an English monologue/talk by a single speaker who reflects on Aesop’s fable "The Tortoise and the Hare." The speaker revisits the fable’s true details, challenges the common "slow and steady" interpretation, references Grant Cardone’s twist, and draws a business/motivational lesson using a "bookie" analogy about ethically facilitating what others want to do. It reads as a short motivational/reflection piece rather than an interview or multi-person discussion.
Chapters
I watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons when I was growing up. It was a thing that probably everybody in my age group did. We didn't have all the other distractions, so Saturday morning was kind of an exciting time where we got to watch the things we wanted to watch. They were a lot different than they are today, that's for sure. One of the things that was on those Saturday morning cartoons was a break every once in a while, and these cartoons would be kind of educational or inspirational. Maybe some of you remember some of them, like Schoolhouse Rock. There was also one that was about Aesop's Fables. They would replay Aesop's fables and put them into cartoons, and it was kind of interesting. I remember, of course, I'm sure you do, the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, which is one of Aesop's fables. I've asked a lot of people recently, and we have kind of lost the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. I've asked people what they thought it meant, and most people think that it's a fable that says slow and steady wins the race. Some people think it's a question about determination and about being focused on where they're going. But the real story is that, first of all, the tortoise challenged the hare to the race, which I didn't really realize. I thought that it was the hare that challenged the tortoise. When he did, he did it, you know, and the, and the hare just thought, well, this is silly, but I'll give it a shot. What the heck, I got nothing to lose. And nothing could have been further from the truth. The truth is the tortoise is the one who had nothing to lose. No one expected him to win. Probably least of all himself, and yet he did win. The reason he won is not because he was slow and steady and won the race, and not because he was focused. It was because the hare decided to ridicule him. The hare ran ahead, and to make him feel even worse, he lay down on the ground and took a nap, and the hare didn't wake up in time to win the race. He took the nap not because he was tired. He took the nap because he wanted to ridicule The Tortoise. It's a really quick read if you want to read it. It's Aesop's Fable number 226, I believe. Very short. And you can see that perhaps when we are endeavoring in our day that we want to be really careful. We may in fact be the fastest, the swiftest, or whatever, but we don't want to rub that in somebody's face by losing focus of what we do well. If you're the fastest, keep being the fastest. Don't take a nap. Keep moving the way you need to move. But there's an additional message that I think is interesting, and that is I was listening to Grant Cardone and he was talking about the tortoise and the hare, and he suggested, "What if there was a third participant? The third participant would have the speed of the hare and the steadfastness of the tortoise. Well, he would smoke both of them." And that may be true, but the truth is there wasn't a third contestant. But we do know this. We do know that there were people watching the race. If nothing else, the fox was the judge of the race. Why do you need a judge if no one's watching? We know that people were watching the race, or we know that animals, whatever you want to call it, and in any race, almost certainly, there'll be people betting on that race. The tortoise won the race, and we don't know if he won anything for winning the race other than pride. The hare lost the race, and we don't know if he lost anything other than pride. But we do know this: if there were people watching, there were people betting. If there were people betting, there was a bookie. If there was a bookie, he won no matter who won. And that might be something to consider. If you can facilitate what other people want to do— and I'm not suggesting you be a bookie, I'm just It's a good example. If you can facilitate what people want to do morally and ethically and make a profit from it, then you're serving people. And in serving people, you'll be rewarded.
