There is a story told about a
professional hunter who had a friend who always wanted to go with him on one of
his hunts. So one day he said to his friend, "I have a permit to go into
the Zambezi Valley and hunt for a buffalo. Would you like to come with
me?"
The friend was ecstatic at the
opportunity.
"When do we go?" he asked.
"In about six months time, but
before then I have to train you about hunting."
For the next six months, the two men
met every day, and they discussed and planned for the trip. The hunter's friend
was surprised by how meticulous the hunter was about everything.
He taught him about the bush, and
how to survive in it. He taught him everything about buffaloes.
“You must respect the buffalo,” he
said, “because it's a very intelligent animal, and it is also extremely
dangerous."
He gave him lots of books to read,
about hunting and buffaloes.
During that time, the friend also
trained every day at the shooting range. He understood by then the different
types of guns used to hunt buffalo. He also had to do fitness training, which
surprised him.
"You can die out there if you
are not fit," his friend explained.
He was totally astounded by what he
was learning about hunting.
"Until now, I thought all you
do is just go out and shoot, but now I know there’s more to this than meets the
eye!" he exclaimed.
When the day came, the two men set
out into the wild bush of the Zambezi Valley, one of the most beautiful places
on the earth. It is also inhospitably hot, and the terrain is tough.
They'd been tracking one single
animal for 5 days, and the hunter's friend was totally exhausted. He watched as
his friend patiently made meticulous plans every single day. The hunter seamed
to take forever, from the point of view of his friend. Sometimes they would
walk, and sometimes they would sit for hours. The hunter was always looking
around, scanning the bushes, not even (it appeared) always paying attention to
the surrounding areas more than the buffalo.
"Why can't he just shoot and we
go home!?"
He was getting tired of this, as
they walked almost 50 miles a day. He was also hungry most of the time, as they
only ate rations of dried meat and fruit, most of the time. The hunter looked
at the animal through his gun sight over and over every day, but wouldn’t take
a shot. Sometimes they appeared so close, but he still did not do anything.
It was the fifth day: The animal was
in sight again, but the hunter was going through his routine again. The friend
sat in the bushes, when suddenly a rabbit appeared in front of him and he
thought to himself, "At least if I shoot this rabbit, we can have meat
tonight. I'm tired of dry rations." So he pulled out his gun and fired
once. The rabbit disappeared, as he had missed anyway, but so did the buffalo,
and with it, the entire herd.
The hunter looked at him in total
horror and disbelief!
Then he shouted, "Run, or you
die!" as he took off.
They almost got stampeded by an
entire herd that seemed to appear from nowhere. Also, suddenly there were lions
everywhere that he had not seen before! But for the skills of the hunter, who
led them both to safety, they could have died.
The buffalo was gone. The hunt was
over.
They had to return home,
empty-handed.
There are at least 5 business
lessons I want you to extract from this story.
Your turn: List 5x simple (one line)
responses, if you are interested. No essays.
[By the way, I don't approve of
hunting. So remember, this is a business story. Don't write me stories about
animals!]
End.
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