科学家做过一个有趣的实验：把梭子鱼放在有许多小鱼的鱼缸里，梭子鱼捕食小鱼如探囊取物，随心所欲。于是科学家给它罩上了一个玻璃罩,把它和小鱼隔离起来。梭子鱼能清楚地看见小鱼，照旧去捕鱼，可总是捕不到，多次碰壁之后，彻底失望的梭子鱼就停在那里一动不动了。当科学家把罩子移开后，任凭小鱼在身边游来游去,已经失去捕鱼信心和勇气的梭子鱼依然无动于衷，再也不肯做任何的努力，最终在丰盛的食物的包围中活活饿死……

In a dramatic experiment some researchers placed a large pike in the middle of an aquarium with minnows to feed on. The fish fed to his heart's delight. Then, the researchers placed a glass partition in the tank, dividing it in two. After the pike had eaten all of the minnows on his side of the partition, he could see the other minnows through the glass but he couldn't get to them. He thrashed, he bumped, he bashed his body against the glass partition but to no avail. He finally formed a belief that it was impossible for him to get to those fish. He stopped trying. Then, the researchers removed the glass partition and allowed the minnows to swim all around him. He could smell them. He could see them. He could feel them. But he believed that those fish were no longer available to him-that they were forever locked away from him-that it was impossible for him to win. So he starved to death in the middle of an aquarium full of food.

Everywhere you look, people are starving to death in the middle of aquariums teeming with food. Everywhere you look, people are blinded to the prosperity that surrounds them, deaf to the sound of opportunity knocking on their own front door, insensitive to the intuitive feelings that flood their entire being. This doesn't need to happen to you.

从一定意义上讲，我们每个人都有“梭子鱼综合症”。我们都相信有我们不可能做到的事情，就像那条本性凶残却活活饿死的梭子鱼。能否冲破这样的信条，只取决于我们自己。其实，你只要再多尝试一次，更努力一点，或者尝试你从来没有尝试过的事情，你就一定知道你的潜力。