Chicken

You can't hatch chickens from fried eggs.

~ Dutch Proverb

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Once there was a chicken. The chicken was always afraid. It's chicken friends would say, "You're such a chicken!" These were not particularly good friends and they clearly had some self-loathing issues.

Nearby there was a cat. The cat was also always afraid. It's cat friends would say, "You're such a scaredy cat!" Again - crummy friends with low self-esteem.

Now, I could tell you how the chicken and the cat in this story worked together to protect their friends from a monster or bad weather or bad investments and everyone thought they were so brave, but that is not what happened.  The cat ate the chicken.  It had nothing to do with self-esteem.  It had to do with the fact that it was a cat and a chicken.