A manager we know told us a story about his childhood in India. He used to watch the tamed elephants and marvelled that, for such huge powerful animals, they never tried to escape; they were tethered only by a thin rope to a stake in the ground. The secret was revealed when he watched people train the young elephants. The trainer would tie one of the elephant's feet to a stake in the ground. The young elephant was not very strong and try as he might, could not uproot the stake or break the rope. So he gave up. As the elephant grew strong he never tried again to break free, and so the result was the fully grown animals were restricted to a small area by a thin rope and a small stake.