The story tells of a race between a hare and tortoise where the hare initially wins by getting overconfident and falling asleep, allowing the tortoise to win. This leads them to have multiple rematches with different lessons each time - running at full speed, changing the course to use different strengths, and finally teaming up by helping each other to both cross the finish line. The moral is that having individual strengths is good but working as a team, using situational leadership and competing against problems rather than rivals leads to the best outcomes.