The Donkey who Wanted to be a Lion an African proverb,
“Lions sleep 18 hrs a day, but a donkey works 18 hrs a day. If hard work is the secret to success, then the donkey would have been ‘ king of the jungle “
In the animal kingdom the Lion and Donkey are on polar opposites of the spectrum. The Lion being the king and the donkey the ass. But why is it like this?
The Donkey is one of the most hardworking, loyal animals on the planet. It is worked to death most of the time and can spend up to 12 hours a day working. The Lion is one of the laziest creatures, it can sleep for up to 12+ hours, the lioness does most of hunting and child rearing, so what makes us think the Lion is the king of the jungle?
When the Lion does decide to hunt, it hunts in a very smart way it does more work in a span of 4 hours than most of the pride can in 4 days. So being smart is the trait we judge highest in the animal kingdom, instead of working hard.
Traits of the animals:
Characteristics of the Lion, smart and efficient.
Characteristics of the Donkey, very hard working, loyal and often times abused and discarded when no longer useful. It’s the ass(butt of the jokes in the animal kingdom).
Now you guys can appreciate this joke, What do you call someone who has the characteristics of both a Lion (Smart) and a Donkey(Ass)? When someone works both hard and smart we tell them stop being a “Smart Ass”.
I have attached a screenshot of a page of this book,which is sadly no longer in print, but it had some really good proverbs in it.
The Donkey vs Lion mentality as it relates to work applies to real life, I cannot tell you how many of my friends believe that characteristics of a Donkey in a work place lead to promotions and success. It’s sad but those who work hard are not rewarded as much as those who work smart. Don’t be the donkey of your workplace, work smarter not harder.