Sep 24, 2018
Have you heard of the marshmallow experiment? Even if you have, pay close attention and see if you can spot some distinctions. Years ago, a large group of 4-year-olds was led into a room that looked like a classroom. One wall had a one-way mirror that allowed researchers to watch the children. Each child had a marshmallow put in front of him or her, and was given simple instructions by a researcher: feel free to eat the marshmallow now, or wait to eat it until after the researcher’s return and receive a second marshmallow. Then the researcher left the room.
About a third of the kids immediately ate the marshmallow. Another third of the kids held out for a few minutes before succumbing to temptation and eating the marshmallow. The final third of the kids managed to wait the 15-20 minutes until the researcher returned. These kids received a second marshmallow.
Fourteen years later, researchers tracked down the now-18-year-olds. The ones who had waited to eat the marshmallow until the researcher returned scored an average of 210 points higher on the SATs than the people who did eat the marshmallow. Years after that, when the subjects were 40, the group who had managed to resist eating the marshmallow had more successful marriages, higher income, greater career satisfaction, and even better health than the marshmallow-eaters.
By now, you’re probably convinced of how powerful delayed gratification is! I’d like you to take a moment to examine yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner. Are you a marshmallow-eater, or do you delay gratification? Tune into the episode to learn more about why delayed gratification is so important, how you can teach it to your kids (or yourself), what it means to sell through instant gratification and ethically smuggle delayed gratification, the incredible power of compounding, and much more.
In This Episode:
[02:35] - Alex introduces the powerful insights that he’ll cover over the course of today’s episode.
[04:11] - We hear the story of the famous marshmallow experiment.
[05:57] - Alex shares the results of the marshmallow experiment, revealing how many of the kids ate the marshmallow immediately.
[08:47] - 14 years later, the researchers tracked the kids down. Alex talks about something the researchers found.
[11:16] - What type of entrepreneur or business owner are you?
[13:29] - Alex talks about whether delayed gratification is a skill that you can teach your kids, or learn yourself.
[15:07] - We hear about the way that Alex delays his own gratification through seeding.
[16:22] - Alex talks about the strategy of selling through instant gratification and ethically smuggling delayed gratification.
[18:13] - We hear an example of what Alex has been talking about in terms of selling through instant gratification.
[20:24] - Here’s the Alexism for today’s episode: small actions, consistently done, produce extraordinary results. In exploring this topic, Alex talks about the power of compounding.
[23:40] - How do you get instant gratification daily and build momentum on it?
[25:34] - Alex shares a quick review of the insights he has covered in this episode, and recaps his points about gratification.
[26:57] - If you haven’t already reviewed the show, please head to this link and take a moment to leave your biggest takeaway from this episode as a review!
[28:03] - Alex offers a final gift in honor of this 28th episode of the podcast: a free copy of his book Alexisms! To learn how to get yours completely free, tune into this episode.
Links and Resources: