Mindset story: The shark and fish experiment about belief

There was once a coach in a small-town high school who noticed that one of his students never seemed to have any ambitions. The boy had no ambitions in sports, or in school plays, or any other activities the school organized. So one day the coach decided to have a talk with the student. The young boy finally felt that someone actually cares about him and decided to trust the coach, “You see sir, every time I have tried sports there was someone who said I wasn’t good enough to be on their team. When I tried out in the school play the teacher said I wasn’t good enough to be in any of the bigger roles. And because of my grades, my teachers said that I will never achieve anything of worth in my life. I feel like everywhere I turn there is some barrier that is blocking me so I don’t see the meaning in trying anything at all.” The coach felt sad for the young boy and at the same time saw the problem. Knowing that telling the boy to not give up and keep trying wouldn’t do “the trick” the coach decided to take a different approach. So he asked the young boy, “Do you know about the shark and fish experiment about belief?”

The young boy just waiting to hear a lecture about how he is wrong to just give up was surprised by the coach’s question. “No, I haven’t. What is it about?” The coach smiled and said with a calm voice, “Well once there was a marine biologist who wanted to see if he could trick a shark to not eat other fish. So the marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small fish as bait into the tank. As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish. The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. On one side was the shark and on the other side of the fiberglass, the biologist put the fish.”

“Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, the shark gave up. The biologist repeated the experiment several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually, the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether. The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the fish, so the fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm. And after some time the shark died of hunger in a full tank of fish he could eat”

The young boy looked at the coach and asked “So… I’m the shark in the story? No, I’m not. The shark was given the opportunity to eat the fish, while I was never given the opportunity in any activity.” The coach followed up with a question, “In the shark and fish experiment about belief the biologist put in the barrier. But in your case who is setting up the barrier?” Suddenly the young boy stud speechless. After a few moments, he stood up and made a promise to himself to never be “hungry” as the shark was. From that day forward the coach’s story of the shark and fish experiment about belief was a constant reminder to the young boy that his belief is the only thing that can set barriers in his life.