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 away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

當一名男子經過象群的時候,他突然停了下來。這群龐大生物被一根系在他們前腿的小繩子拴住了,他對此十分困惑。沒有鎖鏈,沒有籠子。顯然,任何時候大象們都可以掙脫束縛,然而,由于某種原因,她們并沒有掙脫。

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt 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, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

他看到附近的訓練員,問道,為什么這些動物只是站在那兒,卻不嘗試逃脫。“咳,”訓練員說,“在它們很小的時候,我們用同樣尺寸的繩子拴著它們,那個時候,這條繩子足夠拴住它們了。隨著它們漸漸長大,它們習慣性地認為自己無法掙脫。它們以為這條繩子依然可以束縛住自己,所以它們從不會嘗試掙脫。”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

這名男子十分驚訝。這些動物本來隨時都可以掙脫束縛,然而因為它們認為自己無法掙脫,所以它們就被困在了那里。

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

就像這些大象,我們之中有多少人在生活中固守著一個觀念,自己辦不到某件事情,只是因為曾經失敗過一次?

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

失敗是學習的一部分,生活中,我們永遠都不應該放棄努力。