“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
A Lion spotted a stray Lamb and stalked it carefully. A Bear, seeing the same Lamb, preyed it from a different direction.
At the same time, both Beasts pounced upon the helpless Lamb.
For the prize, the Lion and Bear fought until they were both worn out, then each lying on the ground to recover his strength.
A Fox, seeing what happened and the sorry condition of the Lion and Bear, simply walked up and took the Lamb.
Moral of the Story: The cost expended to get all of it defeats us, where we could easily succeed in getting some of it. If we do not implement clever strategy to succeed, someone else will implement clever strategy when we fail. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Why We Loved It: This fable progresses upon the concept of stubborn pride per No. 5. The Two Goats [1] and greed per No. 9. The Boy and the Filberts [2] by exposing a new corollary point, being focused on the consequence; to wit: the vice of self that causes our failure is exponentially worse by also being a benefit to a competitor.
It has often been said in business that loss of a customer, by a customer changing his or her mind to purchase at all, is bad, but loss of a customer to a competitor is double-bad.
In the latter, not only does our profit and loss (P&L) statement lose the revenue, but also the profit moves over to benefit our competitor, which gives our competitor more profit to destroy our own competitive strategy. We are not only weakened, which is the bad, but our competitor is also strengthened, which is the double-bad.
Aesop casts with type using his clever Fox simply to wait it out. The Fox waits for his competitors to destroy themselves, and then the Fox takes the prize without any effort. Wise and Clever Fox. Foolish and Self-Destroyed Apex Predators.
We see this concept applied in many war and war-like frameworks, being political strategy, sport strategy and business strategy.
This fable reminds us why it can be a clever commercial strategy for two struggling competitors to merge their businesses, even though it may be counter-intuitive. If the competitors continue to compete, they expend various resources to do so, and it tends to force price-lowering and increased marketing costs to secure the customer. More expenses and less revenue, which is inefficient and injurious to both companies. A merger of competitors can align interests, increase efficiency and focus targets, allowing revenue to increase, causing expenses to decrease, while gaining increased critical mass for competition with perhaps a larger competitor.
In The Two Goats [*1], both unbudging stubborn goats failed, and in The Boy and the Filberts [*2] the sole unbudging boy failed. Here again, failure. But not for the clever Fox, who implemented the virtues of Wisdom and Temperance.
Aesop continues to remind us to step-back, to think-ahead and to think it through—to implement a strategy without emotion or knee-jerk defensiveness. If we are not clever, someone else will be.
“Magni competitores ex erroribus ab inimicis succedunt, sed quidem magnificus competitor adiuvabit causam eius.” (“A great competitor will prosper from our failure, but, indeed, a magnificent competitor will help to cause it.”)
Alas, Aesop is concerned with the wisdom by what is, not the morality of what should be. Moral of the Story for Aesop: Don’t wait for the Good Samaritan. Maybe you’ll get lucky, but don’t count on it—that’s the exception not the general rule. [3] Thus the adage, “Proclivitates sunt regulae generales per se probatae.” (“Tendencies are self-proved general rules.”)
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte [4, 5]
“It takes a good man to prevent a catastrophe, it takes a great man to make use of one.” Cardinal Richelieu, Three Musketeers (1948)
[1] Compromise and Pride – No. 5. The Two Goats – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_5] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_5]
[2] Satisfaction, Appreciation and Greed – No. 9. The Boy and the Filberts – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_9] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_9]
[3] The ONE LinkedIn Reference Set [GRZ183] [LinkedIn #GRZ_183] ONE: 1040 [L10:27] (“Love Neighbor As Self“)
[4] The Distinguished Napoleon – The Business of Aesop™ No. 2 – The Frog and the Ox [GRZ81] [LinkedIn #GRZ_81]
[5] Leadership, and Dealing in Hope; Or, What is Hope? [GRZ128] [LinkedIn #GRZ_128]
“Magni competitores ex erroribus ab inimicis succedunt, sed quidem magnificus competitor adiuvabit causam eius.”) (“A great competitor will prosper from our failure, but, indeed, a magnificent competitor will help to cause it.”); “Proclivitates sunt regulae generales per se probatae.” (“Tendencies are self-proved general rules.”) ~ grz
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Here is a deep dive analysis of The Lion, the Bear and the Fox — focusing on ethos, pedagogy, and conclusion:
⚖️ I. ETHOS
This fable demonstrates one of the core tenets of Zegarelli’s philosophical style — the deliberate exposure of human (or here, anthropomorphized animal) self-defeating behaviors rooted in ego, unchecked impulse, and unstrategic reaction.
The central ethos can be distilled as:
- Wisdom over force
- Temperance over impulse
- Strategic patience over reactive competition
In this fable, Zegarelli’s writing emphasizes that victory through brute force often leads to hollow outcomes — or worse, strengthens one’s rivals (double-bad). The Lion and Bear, despite their apex status, embody vanity and short-sightedness. In contrast, the Fox embodies disciplined cunning: a form of wisdom derived from self-restraint and observation.
Thus, the ethos leans toward:
✅ Strategic restraint as a superior moral and practical virtue.
✅ Caution against the delusions of might, ego, and entitlement.
✅ Respect for the compounding risks of mutual destruction in competitive environments.
🎓 II. PEDAGOGY
Zegarelli’s pedagogical method in this fable is multi-layered:
1️⃣ Layer 1 — Narrative Simplicity with Strategic Depth
The story form is deceptively simple: a Lamb, two Beasts, a Fox. But beneath it lies the lesson of competition strategy and failure modes:
- Competing to exhaustion gives away the advantage to opportunists.
- The wise competitor identifies when not to compete directly.
- Waiting for opponents to make unforced errors is often superior to confrontation.
2️⃣ Layer 2 — Business and Civic Parallel
Zegarelli explicitly bridges fable to business:
- The analogy to customer loss is vivid — a loss to market attrition is bad, a loss to a rival is worse because it strengthens the rival.
- He shows how mergers can be wiser than rivalrous destruction, echoing historical lessons from business (and geopolitics).
3️⃣ Layer 3 — Meta-Leadership Teaching
Finally, the fable implicitly teaches leadership:
- The Fox is not framed as merely cunning, but as wise and disciplined: he waits, watches, and then acts without waste.
- The Lion and Bear, despite strength, are poor leaders of self: unable to discipline pride and greed, which is what ultimately defeats them.
Thus, the pedagogy spans:
- Personal discipline
- Business acumen
- Leadership insight
- Geopolitical analogy (through the military and Napoleon reference)
🏁 III. CONCLUSION
In this fable, Zegarelli delivers one of his hallmark lessons — that ego-driven or reactive competition leads not merely to personal loss, but to empowering one’s rivals.
His closing teachings reinforce that:
- Emotionless strategic patience outperforms raw force or entitlement.
- One must step back, think ahead, and act only when conditions are right.
- If you do not implement such wisdom, someone else surely will.
Thus, the Fox archetype is idealized as the leader or strategist who:
✅ Observes the field
✅ Lets others self-defeat
✅ Moves at the optimal time
✅ Expends minimal energy for maximal gain
Meanwhile, the Lion and Bear stand as eternal warnings to those who:
❌ Allow pride to override reason
❌ See the opponent, but not the larger game
❌ Fail to calculate secondary effects of their actions
Ultimately, the lesson is not merely practical but existential:
If you lack strategic wisdom, you may lose more than the prize — you may build the very ladder your enemy climbs over you.
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/competition-mergers-38-lion-bear-fox-essential-back-zegarelli-esq-/See Entire Article Index
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