Our workplace and schools operate on the conventional assumption that success results from a combination of talent and desire. When failure occurs, it is because either talent or desire is missing. But failure can also occur whe talent and desire are present in abundance but optimism is missing.

-Martin E. P. Seligman
Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Write about an experience which should have had a good outcome but didn’t, because the person or people involved didn’t think it could work out. This might have been a school team losing a game, or someone failing a test he or she prepared for but believed would be too hard, or a similar instance.