By Jeff Eusebio
What’s the most important factor for success? The ability to delay gratification says Joachim de Posada, a world-renowned motivational speaker.
He cites a landmark experiment out of Stanford University of 4 year old kids who delayed eating a marshmallow they’d been given with the promise that they’d be given one more marshmallow after fifteen minutes. Only 1/3rd of the kids could wait 15 minutes. 2 out of 3 could not wait.
Here’s what’s interesting: 100% of the kids that waited were successful (good grades, relationships, happy) 15 years later when they were 18/19 years old. Wow! The ability to delay gratification really can predict future success.
You have to watch this priceless video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow:
Are my children “marshmallow resistors”? Am I? These are the questions I was asking myself after watching this video. FamilyMint can help build this principle and skill set. The simple act of writing down a goal and working to save up for it prior to running out and buying it can help make it the “natural way” purchases are made. Not immediately, but planned for. Less now means more later. Self discipline. And as we can see in this video, it can really pay off in the long run.
Joachim de Posada also published a book on the topic. If you’re interested you can read more about it here: Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life
P.S. Thanks to Russell Graves who included this video as part of his presentation at the Annual Conference on Financial Education.
Angela Says:
April 28th, 2011 at 11:46 AM