The story of the tortoise and the hare teaches several lessons about teamwork and competition. In the original story, the slow but steady tortoise wins the race by continuing on while the overconfident hare takes a nap. Later races show that being fast and reliable is better. The tortoise then changes the rules of the race to play to its strength of swimming, showing the importance of adapting to one's strengths. Finally, they realize that working as a team by helping each other results in the best performance. The moral is that teamwork allows individuals with different strengths to complement each other and achieve more.