We all know the classic tale of how the Tortoise, through a steady (albeit slow) pace wins the race (and life) by sticking to the course and not deviating.

Well today I saw something that reminded me that many times, if not most of the time, the Hare really wins.  As I was driving home, I was close to passing a car coming the other way when a little bird flew very quickly in front of the car in the other lane.  It barely escaped!  Did it slow down?  No, it realized that I was right on it too, so it was flapping like crazy to avoid my car, again barely escaping.  A slower bird would be getting a free car ride in my grill.

What does my bird story have to do with the “Hare and the Tortoise“, well sometime, being slow and thoughtful isn’t enough.  Sometimes great speed is the key that makes the difference.  When I was in Tae Kwon Do, I would spar against better trained individuals, but I was able to out spar them because I was faster.

In the workplace, the Hare especially has an advantage.  He comes up with the ideas first, this environment is where the fast talking smooth operators stands out.

In the sports world, the Tortoise is sitting on the bench, while the fastest Hare is the star that all the females notice and want to be with.

The theory is that the Hare lost in the original story because he overestimated his opponent and relax, basically goofing off.  But I think most Hares would go after the jugular and try to win as quickly as possible.  I think the original story was baseless and flawed.  IMHO, the Hare is equivalent to a Type A personality and generally these are the types that get ahead and win in the long run.

In finances, you get ahead when you created the largest savings delta as possible.  If you can’t make that “saving delta” happen, then you never really get to accumulate wealth!  The two components of the savings delta is “income earned” and frugality.  If you don’t make enough money, your saving delta will be very small or non-existent.  The Hares are the big income winners, and many of them are clever enough to be frugal too.  So based off of my analysis, I would think that most of the wealthy are Hares instead of Tortoises.

Readers, Tell me what you think!  Do you know many Tortoises that are wealthy?

-MR