Tuesday, January 24, 2006

ok... i got this as a forwarded msg around 2 yrs back first. then i got this again today. some of u must hv read this, bt neways here it goes:

The famous race of the Rabbit and the Tortoise PART II

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race. The moral- "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the
story that we've all grown up with."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

There are few more interesting things.....it continues as follows...... The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles. The moral - " 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."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race. The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well. Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could." In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both. The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.
To sum up- the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say: Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

hmmmmmmmm............ im nt really the blogging kinds, bt since i HAD to cmnt on sitas blog (to clarify lotsa things) n u cant do dat widout creatin ur own blog, hence this page full on non-sensical weird stuff came into existence. so ull hv 2 sue blogger.com fr being bored to insanity. torturing u ppl out der who're readin this cos u cant cmnt widout ownin a blog on this site. business tactics i assume. dont really hv nething 2 say. ok so im 17 yrs old, live in del, m doin phy chem maths wid bio (why? cos as sum1 very rightly sed main paagal hoon). nt as boring as u think if u dont kno me n r readin this. ok im nt gtn newhere, so fine even ill tlk abt imp ppl in my life, as sita did, in scrambled order.
  1. rahul dravid: i think hes d best, wat wid 8003 runs in tests, which nclude 5 dbl centuries!!! (i cn go on n on bt then ull gt even more bored so watevr)
  2. my mom, dad, n m sis: cant even think of livin widout em.
  3. nilovna chatterjee : this gurl is da bomb! we met in class 9, n still r really good frnds, even tho she lives in kochi. had rockin times in class 10. rmbr how munni n agggy gt bullied by class 3 girls? miss u loads
  4. jacob: nillus best frnd. amazin guy. really sweet, had lods of fun tlkin 2 u, esp abt nilvonas escapades wid manohar n agastya.
  5. varun gulati: cant gt sweeter than that! an amazin frnd, lil crazy bt really cool n sporting. takes all dat teasin in his stride. very hard wrkin, i wont be surprised if hes still gng n playin snake so dat 1 elusive day hell beat sakshi! o yeah btw hes deeeeeeeply comitted to watevr he does-nt 2 mention d fact dat hes crazy abt u kno who! ;)
  6. saakshita prabhakar: freaky!!!!!!!! bonded almost instantaenoeusly wen we met. had awsm times together. rmbr class 9 camp n d makdis, n agra trip n god der r loads n loads of memories we share! luv u loads!!!!
  7. abha: dunno if ull evr read dis, but hmmm dis girl is oh-so-awsm. u shud seriously change ur name 2 abba! had such fun wid u esp wen H is around!
  8. praneeta vir: meow! lol. shes d ultimate hot chick. had lotsa fun together, "there was.. a girl.... " all d way frm ccd to skool!!
  9. apurv: sutta! dunno if ull ever read dis either, bt neways dis guy is crazy! baggy pants n a killer atitude! can be real weird at times bt yeah a nice guy.
  10. sita priya venkat krishnan krishna moorthi aiyar: loooooong name n an even longer list of the rockin times weve had tgthr. had 2 mention ur name cos usse pehle apoorv .... nt d same guy bt yeah same name. kewl!
  11. shuchi: the stabilizing force in our gang! dis gal is awsm. mite think shes a nerd wat wid groomin batch n all, trust me shes one cool cat, wid loads n loads of brains!
  12. anisha mathur: my best frnd friendly wash!!!!!! had such fun tgthr! rahul dravid, scorpions n kaankhajooras in our tents n evrything! luv u n ur dogs!
  13. puroitree majumdar: well well well wat do i say... hv loads in common n dats nt just hutch, raghav sachar, parthiv! hv soooooooo many moments to rmbr, not al to b cherishd frevr bt neways.... dont forgt JS!!!!
  14. sakshi: 1 cool gal, petite, smart, n helluva fun 2 b wid!!!! heard me very patiently wen i tlkd abt well... stuff. u rock!
  15. pavee: banta guy! can b really pssng off bt can be loads of fun too. had loads of fun wid u around!
  16. sonali mittra: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? phew!!! n i thot i ws d most annoyin person! kiddin. shes shooo sweet. thnx fr evrything uve done! luv u
  17. himanshu: sweet guy, think he ws d first person i tlkd 2 wen i joined fiitjee. btw u n varun still hvnt danced tgthr!
  18. rishma: marchin ahead to stardom! ok dat duznt make sense bt newez thnx lots fr lissenin. hope spring comes soon!
  19. pranav babbar: too short to hv a middle name! hd interesting online convos. keep in touch.
  20. simran: frnch toast! v hard wrkin. i want a cmnt frm u. chal apna blog bana!
  21. agastya: dis guy(?) or watevr robot wants me 2 die at 34!! really sweet (NOT!!!) had loads of fun buggin u. best f luck fr MIT (maharashtra inst of tech)
  22. manohar: munnibai btech. man class 10 wudve bin so boring widout u in my section! thnx a lot fr d stupid iit song. ill miss u guys like hell man!
  23. pranay jain: best f luck fr iit. hmm. praneeta thinks ur sweet, bt i dunno. dis guy/broomstick/matchstick can be really weird, can piss d hell outta u too, bt yeah nice guy. can get really embarassing at times. can be really sweet at times too. nt we on the tennis court tho!
  24. harshyaa makhija: talk abt being focussed! we both hv borne d brunt of ms. krishnans endless taunts!! chill out... lifes good. luv u lots!

sooooooo, i think ive cvrd evry1 n im really realllly sory if ive missed out on ne1. now i want comments esp from simran sadana, varun gulati and nilovna chatterjee! have fun! :P

love u all.

pranshu