Failure is a part of learning

One day a man was walking across a large, lush field. As he was walking, he saw a long line of elephants following their master. The man suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front legs. There were no chains and no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why the elephants just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well”, trainer said, “when they were very young and much smaller we used to tie them together with same sized ropes, at that age, it was just enough to hold them together. As they grew up, they were conditioned to believe they couldn’t break away. They believe that the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break away.”

The man was amazed at the thought that such huge creatures 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?

Moral: Failure is a part of learning. We should never give up the struggle in life. You fail not because you are destined to fail, but because there are lessons which you need to learn as you move on with your life. If you fail, you will succeed and achieve even more. If you worry too much about failing, you won’t achieve much in life.