Bolt and the tortoise

Fables tell us a lot about the underlying values, a society cherishes. My impression from the stories that I have been told as a child, is that we value goodness of the character, contentment and belief in the ultimate victory of good over evil. But I some times wonder how so many of our stories talk about hidden treasures and magical objects. Do these not lead us to grow up with a subconscious teaching that don’t worry if you haven’t worked hard enough? Lady luck might still just smile at you. Without going into pros and cons of it, haven’t societies, which we identify with killer instinct, been telling their children stories of a glorious military conquests and heroic adventures?

While this point might need a much nuanced thinking, my own personal grudge with a childhood fable is much less controversial. The hare and the tortoise. How could the tortoise win? First time I heard the story, I told myself, come on, the hare had all the right to take that break knowing how good was it. In the real life, a hare will always beat a tortoise in a cross country, even if it takes a nap of an hour on two (irrespective of your moral judgment on hare’s arrogance). You just can’t twist the narrative, making the hare sleep off the entire day, just to let your tortoise win.

Almost everyone criticized Usain Bolt for that chest-thumping swagger at the end of his 100m sprint at the Olympics, losing few milliseconds in the process. But, what if he had been dreaming of such a celebration since he was a child? He must have been sure that he was not going to lose and would make a better world record some other day.

That brings me to entertain a thought that perhaps self awareness is a more fundamental virtue than self-confidence. Haven’t we seen many successful people who do not come across as most confident/flamboyant type but still very assure of themselves and adept at playing at their strengths? And vice versa.
Isn’t over-confidence, nothing but confidence without awareness? I find popular emphasis on self-confidence as key to success, a bit over-hyped. Self-confidence automatically emanates from self-awareness. But perhaps because it is difficult to coach someone for self awareness than for self confidence (or at least a pretension of it and the entire attitude thing), we take short-cuts. A more profound message is ignored for a superficial, easy to apply message. An over-confident tortoise is made a hero to teach us a lesson in perseverance.