Everyone has heard of the Aesop’s fables. One of the stories of the fables describes how a tortoise defeats a hare in a race of speed. The moral of the story says ‘slow and steady wins the race’. Well, I’m not here to review or narrate the fable. I just wanted to recall the old saying and bring forward the fact that it is no longer a valid moral and notion. In the present world there is no option to stay slow. There’s no way one can win a race if he is slow even if he is the steadiest. The world is not a place for slowpokes.
Right from the beginning our life starts with a race. Whether it is the race to get admission in a school or in a college, there is no end to the races of our life. And once we fail in the race, the consequences are unforgiving. The present world shows no mercy to failures. The moment you fall behind, your future, your goal, your objectives seems to get beyond your reach. Once your objectives go beyond your reach, you see your dreams shatter and fall apart. When you start falling behind, no one is there to stop for you because everyone is a part of the race and no one is willing to compromise his or her position for your sake.
Similarly we need to be equally steady in the race. Without steadiness, there won’t be any consistency in the life. Speed and consistency is equally important for the survival in the race of life. Without these two basic tools, there is no chance that one would last a single day in the world.
Having said all this, let us take the example of startups. Without proper speed and consistency it is impossible for a venture to survive in the market. With the rigid and strict competition, there is absolutely no margin for error. One wrong or a slow step and the plan is a failure. All the efforts go down the sewer with nothing in return except for regrets. Slow decision making can be compared with opportunity cost too.
The entrepreneurial market is one of the toughest competitions that one can witness. With hundreds of startups crawling up every day the competition is becoming more and more difficult and no one is ready to leave a single scope for his competitor. It is the survival of the fittest. To keep up in the competition, the startups don’t just need consistency or steadiness but speed is also a mandatory requirement in it. For example if an entrepreneur expects to draw a profit tomorrow, he needs to it today. That’s because by tomorrow hundreds of others can come in the market to compete for the profit. Not one competitor is ready to spare a single inch of space to their rivals. Everyone is trying to stay ahead of the other.
In such a condition the startup owners need to be not only steady but also fast. At the end of the day it is the fast and the steady who wins the race. It’s no longer the game of the ‘slow and steady’. So buckle up and fasten your seat belt and be ‘fast and steady’ to win the race.
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