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."

　　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.

　　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?

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

　　其思即其人-栓象之绳

　　当有个人经过一群大象的时，他突然停了下来，他非常疑惑。因为这些巨大的生物被它们的前腿绑在一根小绳上拴着。没有锁链，没有牢笼。很明显，大象可以随时挣脱他们的镣铐，但由于某种原因，他们没有。

　　他看到附近有一个驯兽师，问为什么这些动物只是站在那里，并没有试图逃跑。“好吧，”教练说，“当他们年幼时，我们用同样大小的绳子绑着他们，在那个年龄，这足以拴住他们。当他们长大后，他们习惯于相信他们无法逃跑。他们相信绳子仍然可以拴住他们，所以他们从来没有试图挣脱。”

　　这个人很惊讶。这些动物可以随时挣脱他们的镣铐，但因为他们认为自己不能，他们就只能被困在原地。

　　像大象一样，我们中有多少人仅仅因为自己曾经失败过，便在生活中相信自己不能做什么事情？

　　失败是学习的一部分，我们不应该在生活中放弃努力。