A marine biologist held a shark in a very large glass tank and then dropped many small fishes into the tank as bait. Well, as is expected of the shark, it ate up the smaller fishes in a swift attack.
The biologist now placed a transparent fiberglass partitioning the tank into two. He then separated the shark and the small fishes on different sides of the tank.
Instinctively again, the shark launched a swift attach on the fishes. But unfortunately this time, it ended up slamming itself against the glass fiber that partitioned the tank. The shark repeated this behavior several hundreds of times and ended up failing in all its attempts. Overtime, the shark gave up its attempt.
The biologist repeated this event over time and ended up conditioning the shark to stop attacking altogether, believing that if it attacked, it would always slam itself against a fiber wall made of glass.
Subsequently, the partitions were removed and still the shark refused to attack.
The simple moral is this: most persons believe past failures would always yield future failures; they, thus, stop trying. This is not true! Keep trying and you will made headway soonest!
RE: STACH Short Story Contest #22: 199 words, 5 winners, 15SBD prize pool!