As a man was passing the elephants， he suddenly stopped， confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains， no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could， at anytime， break away1 from their bonds but for some reason， they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt2 to get away.“Well，” trainer said， “when they are very young and much smaller， we use the same size rope to tie them and， at that age， its enough to hold them. As they grow up， they are conditioned to3 believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them， so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at anytime break free from their bonds， but because they believed they couldnt， they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants， how many of us go through life hanging onto4 a belief that we cannot do something， simply because we failed at it once before？

Failure is part of learning； we should never give up the struggle in life.

当一个人从大象群旁边路过时，突然停住了，他感到迷惑不解：这些庞然大物只是被一根小小的绳子拴着，而那根绳子就系在它们的前腿上。没有锁链，也没有牢笼。很明显，大象能在任何时刻从它们的“禁锢”中挣脱出来，但出于某种原因，它们并没有这么做。

他看见附近有一位驯兽师，便询问为何这些动物只是乖乖地站在那里，而并没有企图逃掉。“呃”，驯兽师说，“在它们还非常年幼而且个头也很小的时候，我们用同样尺寸的绳子拴住它们，在那个年纪，这足以能扣留住它们。当它们逐渐长大时，便习惯于认为自己是不可能逃脱的。它们料想那根绳子仍旧能够约束它们，于是就永远也不去尝试强行挣脱。”

那人感到十分惊奇。这些动物可以在任何时刻从它们的“禁锢”中逃脱，但因为它们确信自己做不到，而被困在原处。

就如同这群大象一样，我们中有多少人在生命的历程中固守自己做不到某事的信条，仅仅是因为我们曾经在这方面失败过一次呢？

失败乃是学习的一部分；我们永远都不应该放弃生命中努力奋斗的机会。