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Why can't people spot the winning horse?
We are horses. We love to run. People put a price on us. The horse doesn't know the price. Horses love to run. It runs till it can. It runs till it is getting food and nurturing. Any resemblance of this post to start-ups, enterprises, founders, managers and employees is the fictionary mind of the reader at play.
Friday March 24, 2017 , 4 min Read
Have you watched the movie Sea Biscuit?
It is about a horse that, at first sight, people would think - this is not a race winner. The movie gets a mention here because the Sea Biscuit wins. Wins against all odds and all powerful looking horses. It gives hope to a lot of people.
You and I are like Seabiscuit.
At first glance - we don't look like winners. We need someone to spot our talent - someone to nurture us - someone to look into our eyes and see the person we can become - not the person outside. Seabiscuit is an outlier. There are many horses like Seabiscuit that wasn't spotted for what it can become. They ended up completing their life span and move on to their next life.
Most People don't know to spot a Seabiscuit
Let me take a laugh while I write this. Most people don't know to spot a Seabiscuit. They just don't. In the game of horse racing - the bets are more on the horses that have proven or that appear strong. Simple, because, it is betting and they need a set of heuristics to pass.
Yet - there is one winner - and 9 other horses that lose. So people revise their bets by saying - this horse I am betting on - I expect it to come 3rd. Not 1st. They win - even if the horse didn't.
It takes talent to spot a winning horse. If you happen to go to a Turf Club, you would notice there are all kinds of people coming over there to bet on horses. The chatter over there when they find experts is "hey, can you tell me which one should I bet on?". It takes talent and experience.
The Role of a Jockey in our lives
Oh! Seabiscuit again. The role of a Jockey is to get the best out of the horse. Jockeys gamble too. If the Jockey has an incentive to slow down a horse - irrespective of how powerful the horse is - the Jockey will slow down the horse.
We are horses - so - we are driven by Jockeys. When Jockeys have incentives to slow us down - we will keep wondering; why am I not winning the race? What can the horse do? The horse can do two things. Run as fast as the Jockey wants it to run and hope that someday it will get a Jockey that gets the best out of it or run to the heart of it. Don't care what the Jockey wants it to do.
A wounded horse is shot down
I did my research as to why. Why are wounded horses shot down? Why not let them live. They were race winning horses at one time. I did my deep research. I saw cases where horses were let to live by themselves - it just died a painful death. So - the kind people on this Earth - decided it is good to let a horse go and be the next race winning horse than to limp and die painfully. A horse always wants to live and not be shot down. It wants to live in the memory of those wins.
There is no gratitude for race horses
They move on. They don't say - hey; I became rich with this horse and we need to show some compassion to it. They move on. They move on to find the next race winning horse. There is no gratitude. The horses don't understand it anyway.
What should a horse do?
If it was born as a horse - a racing horse - it should run. It should derive fun out of a run.
Race is somebody's game. Not for the horse. The game is based on horses running.
While the horse loves to run - it may feel bad the Jockey is hitting and asking it to run faster. In such case - as it can't avoid the Jockey - it has to focus on enjoying the run while being hit. The only survival tool.
A horse can also choose not to run. There is a risk - people might think it is wounded - and shoot it.
A horse can do a free run. Without racing. Without other horses. Without Jockey. That is what all the horses want to. They think once it has won enough races people will give them a great stable - a great field to run.
A free run. Horse. Enjoy the run. Freedom is in your mind. Not in the stick Jockey is carrying. Not in the pressure people put on a horse to win because they bet big.
Enjoy. The Run.
Love you,
Neigh Neigh!