By Dr. Tommy Weir, Special to Gulf News

The second thing that amazed me from my couple of days in the bush of Africa was how fast the animals run, all of them. Our guide pointed to the antelope, “They run up to 88 kilometres per hour.” And that ”An ostrich can run seventy kilometres per hour.”

I couldn’t believe that an animal as tall as a giraffe can run 60 kilometres per hour. The lions, rhinos and even warthogs top 50 kilometres per hour. As our guide filled our heads with this trivia, I started to estimate how fast I am.

I was shocked when I realised they all run faster than I do. The elephant would even be competition for me in a race (and I’m a runner). All of a sudden it made sense why they wouldn’t let me go for my morning run in the bush.

While I really wanted to, I was clearly told, “Things that run are prey.” And I’d be easy prey given the differential in speed.

This new information made me wonder, “Why do they run so fast?” The answer is obviously survival: to keep from being eaten and to be able to eat.

This reminded me of the opening in the book “My Vision” by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, “With each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It is no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you simply have to run faster than others to survive.”

Both the lion and gazelle know that speed matters, no matter what’s happening around them.

I can’t verify where this poem originated from as it’s credited to several different sources, potentially originating in the “Economist” magazine in 1985 in an article titled “Lions or Gazelles?”, where the words were credited to a securities analyst named Dan Montano. But it has made its way into the most competitive environments for inspiration to run, to run fast. Among other places, you’ll find this African proverb, translated into Mandarin on the wall inside a fuel pump factory in Beijing reminding the workers why speed matters.

I don’t know if you’re the lion or the gazelle, but I do know that for you to succeed you need to run fast. I’ll argue that you may even need to run faster and faster than you are today.

You may be asking, “Why do I need to pick up my speed?” While the market may seem cautious, it’s not the time to retreat or be restrained.

With increased competition, changing spending patterns, and challenger business models, you need to be quicker than you ever have been before. No matter how successful you’ve been in the past, you’re not safe or immune.

Some business, some leader is trying to run faster than you are. He’s the lion chasing you.

The luxury to take your time just doesn’t exist anymore. “I wish they would act faster,” a leading CEO told me over dinner the other evening as he was frustrated that his leaders were waiting on him to make decisions instead of acting.

“I don’t want them to bring me decisions to be made. I want them to act on their own.”

Speed comes from acting not waiting. Be careful not to water this point down by thinking that a gazelle really doesn’t have to run faster than the fastest lion as the proverb has us believe — a gazelle only has to run faster than the slowest gazelle in the pack.

Is your ambition to be faster than the fastest lion or just faster than the slowest, most feeble, and lame member of the gazelle pack in which you run? When you reset standards downward you actually make it easier for the lions.

The gazelle who changes the game from running against the fastest lions to competing against the slowest gazelle in the pack is nearly determined to become prey.

My advice is to run like the lion rather than being a gazelle who is running from something. Are you running fast, fast enough to survive? Run faster!

— The writer is a CEO coach and author of “Leadership Dubai Style”. Contact him at tsw@tommyweir.com