Not everything is a LinkedIn post

If the tortoise from The Tortoise and the Hare were alive today, he would be unbearable. He wouldn’t simply enjoy his victory. He would turn it into a speaking career. 

His LinkedIn profile would describe him as an endurance strategist, resilience coach, and thought leader in sustainable momentum. His keynote address would be called “Slow is the new fast” and he would tour corporate conferences explaining that the other animals laughed at his pace until consistency disrupted the woodlands. 

His posts would begin, “I was walking through the forest this morning when I noticed something powerful” and would end with, “What’s one small step you can take today?” Beneath that would be a photograph of the tortoise staring thoughtfully into the middle distance. It would be captioned, “To some a shell might be baggage. To me, it’s resilience.” 

The hare, meanwhile, would be hosting a podcast about burnout. 

We live in the age of the motivational lesson. No experience is allowed simply to happen anymore. Every failed business venture, gym session, spilled cup of coffee, and conversation with a taxi driver must become a parable about leadership. 

Nothing can just be annoying. 

There was a time when missing a flight meant that you had left home too late. Now it means that the universe is teaching you patience and the importance of pivoting. 

I understand the appeal. We want our difficulties to mean something. It’s comforting to believe that every disappointment is preparing us for a greater opportunity and that every wrong turn is secretly part of the route. 

Sometimes that is even true. 

But not every experience needs to become content. Sometimes you missed the flight because you misread the boarding time. Sometimes the business failed because the idea was bad. Sometimes the coffee spilled because the lid wasn’t on properly. 

And sometimes the person sitting next to you on the plane shared an interesting story without becoming “a humble stranger who taught me more about leadership in 20 minutes than I learned during 20 years in business”. He was just a bloke called Brian who sells overpriced pool equipment. 

We have become so determined to extract wisdom from every moment that we risk no longer experiencing the moment itself. Before we’ve finished feeling something, we’re already editing it. 

We do it with success as well. A promotion is no longer good news; it’s an opportunity to announce that we’re “humbled and honoured” to begin an exciting new chapter. 

There’s nothing wrong with learning from experience. Reflection matters. Stories help us understand ourselves, and good motivational speakers can genuinely challenge and inspire us. 

Jewish life certainly values extracting meaning from experience. We retell stories, ask questions, and search ancient events for guidance in the present. But we also understand that insight takes time. Not everything needs to be processed immediately, packaged neatly, and posted before lunch. 

Some lessons need to be shared. Others are better lived. 

Perhaps that’s the real lesson of the tortoise. He didn’t win because he had a personal brand, a five-point strategy, or a viral content plan. He simply kept going, quietly, steadily, and without stopping every few metres to photograph the journey. 

There are probably three leadership lessons in that. But I’m not going to list them. Sometimes it’s enough to learn something, allow it to change us, and carry on walking.