Waiting at the stump

A farmer in the state of Song was working his field when a rabbit ran into a stump, broke its neck and died. He picked it up and took it home.

After that he put down his hoe and stood by the stump, watching for another one. He waited until the field went to weeds and the whole state was laughing at him.

Han Feizi uses him to make a point about governing, but the shape of the story is about something more ordinary than stupidity.

He isn't lazy. He's actually standing there all day, working at waiting. What he's lost is the distinction between a lucky event and a reliable process.

You see this in a person who had one post go viral and has been rewriting variations of it for two years. Or someone whose one good client came through a friend, who now refuses to do any cold outreach because networking is obviously the way.

The rabbit was luck. The field was the process. When the two get confused, the field goes to weeds while you keep watch.

Before you plan next quarter around a repeat of your best month, work out whether that month was a harvest or a rabbit.

MOJOWAY asks the question directly in intake: what actually produced your last three good results. The answer is usually less flattering and more repeatable than the story.