The Two Leopards – A Story About the Need to Continue Developing

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There were once two leopards who would meet to chew over a couple of old bones every Friday.

They lived in a valley that had an abundance of gazelles, so they were well fed.

“I think that I’m going to learn how to catch warthogs.”  Larry the leopard said one day.

“Why would you do that?” Lenny the leopard responded. “We have plenty of gazelles to eat and we know how to catch them.”

“Yes, I know, but you don’t know what the future holds, perhaps they’ll run out one day.” said Larry.

“What a waste of time,” said his mate Lenny.

They went on their way and returned the following week.

“Well, I’ve studied how warthogs live and have caught my first one,” said Larry. “Now I’m going to study monkeys.”

“What a waste of time,” said Lenny.

The following week Larry announced that he had learned how to successfully hunt monkeys and was now going to study impala.

“What a waste of time,” said Lenny.

Months went by and the gazelles moved on.

“I’m hungry,” said Lenny.

“I’m not,” responded Larry.

“I wish that the gazelles didn’t go away.”

“Don’t you mean that you wish that you had learned to hunt other animals?”

Lenny thought for a moment, then shook his head.

“No, I wish that the gazelles had stayed around forever.”

Larry looked at his friend with a hint of sadness, not because Lenny was hungry, but because he was unable to change. 

He turned and went off to hunt warthogs.

I wrote this story as a reminder that the world we live in is changing rapidly.

Jobs that exist today will not be around in the future.

You can complain about that reality and go hungry, or respond resourcefully and keep learning.

What are you going to do?

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