13/08/2016
The Buffalo Hunter
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.
