In the first game of their playoff series against the Anaheim Angels, the often star-crossed Boston Red Sox seemingly were on their way to an easy victory when pitcher Curt Schilling misplayed a ground ball, leading to an Anaheim rally.

In the second game, Boston’s Mark Bellhorn got picked off second base with the bases loaded, killing an early rally. And in the third game, Boston blew a huge lead, allowing Vladimir Guerrero to tie things up with a grand slam.

So The Curse strikes again, and the Red Sox get wiped out, right? Well, no. They won all three games, sweeping the series.

This time, The Curse was foiled. But it certainly would have been blamed if the Red Sox had lost again.

When organizations have long-term trouble, success has more speed bumps than it does for everyone else. When something goes wrong — as it does in every organization — there’s a temptation to say, “Here we go again.”

Consider what happened with the Chicago Cubs a year ago. A pretty weak team came very close to making it to the World Series, but all the focus was on one fan’s interference and one bad loss — not on the positives, and not on learning something from the loss.

The New York Yankees exude confidence. Their organization has failed at times, but they know that things will frequently turn out right.

If your company or department has had frequent failures, you might have your own version of The Curse. When something goes wrong, people excuse it as a return to the status quo rather than figuring out how to stop it from happening again.

Great companies sometimes have to overcome great obstacles. And cynicism might be the greatest one of all.