December 6th, 2009] [
What is the secret ingredient to success?
Is it intelligence? Persistence? Consistence? Or resistance? Well, now it seems that there is an actual scientific study on the main factor to success.
Many people say that it takes practice to be successful; others may say that it takes the smarts to be successful. However, the most recent scientific studies revealed that the most important factor to all success is:
The ability of an individual to delay instant gratifications with consistency over time guarantees the success rate of happiness and fulfillment in people.
The Research
So how did they scientifically prove that self-discipline ensures success?
Well, a bunch of psychology professors did experiments where they took a bunch of kids that were around 4 years old and put them in a room alone individually by themselves.
Then the professors would leave a single piece of marshmallow (OMG GIMME!) alone with each kid and tell them that if they are able to avoid eating the awesomely tasty marshmallow for 15 minutes, they would get a second one afterwards.
Now this is obviously a test for self-discipline. What kid wouldn’t want to eat something so awesomely tasty right in front of their eyes and so easily within their reach?…I certainly just eat it right after they give it to me.
This is the same principle when a teenager/young adult can easily access instant gratification through the internet, phone, TV, and other various distractions. The same is applied with older adults, elders, and all human beings in existence.
So what happened after 15 minutes with each kid? Well, it turns out that of all of the kids that were tested, about 2/3 of them gave in to the evil marshmallows and were well on their way to become potential miserable failures in life – all from a little marshmallow (I’m not joking here).
On the other hand, don’t forget that there were still about 1/3 kids who successfully endured and resisted their temptations. Those children who occupied the minority of the marshmallow experiment were already mentally mature enough to understand the major component of success – self-discipline.
However, the most important evidence to this whole research comes with the follow-up study with all of these children many years afterwards.
The professors now went to look for the same kids who were in the experiments who are now 18-19 years old, and found out that these kids who successfully resisted that single marshmallow in a test that was done over a decade ago are now very successful.
100% of these kids who resisted their marshmallows now have extremely good grades, good relationships with their teachers, parents and friends, they were organized and had long-term ambitious goals, and most importantly they were happy about themselves.
Now what about 2/3 of the kids who failed to resist their marshmallows? Well, the results are as you expected them to be.
Most of those kids reported having trouble in school (poor grades, drop-outs), and only a few of those kids had good grades.
Meaning that the kids who couldn’t resist that white puff of sugar decades ago probably also have less resistance to the white powder they can easily sniff up their noses right now.
The Results
I think the result from this experiment is pretty clear here – it doesn’t matter if you are a genius or not, it doesn’t matter if you have all the resources in the world or not, it doesn’t matter what type of situation you are in: You will be successful with a MUCH greater chance if you have a strong self-discipline.
What happens when you have a strong self-discipline?
- You are focused with your attention, ideas and efforts.
- You are persistent and consistent with your focus and efforts.
- You keep practicing and keep learning from your mistakes.
- You DON’T give up.
To think about it, doing anything can only lead to two consequences – success or failure. However, both can be beneficial depending how you view the concept of failure.
If you treat failure as an education for success rather than a confirmation of eternal failures, then the only way you’ll go is forward in life.
Therefore, when you fail, you now have just gotten a free lesson on how to be more successful than before.
That is what education and paid schooling is all about anyways, it is an institution where you pay others to teach you the knowledge that other’s have gained through years of failure.
What you learn isn’t the genius or sudden epiphany of knowledge of the universe of a few individuals, but the collected and accumulated failures over hundreds of years that allowed more accurate precisions of answers for the workings of our world and our existence.
To sum it all up: The secret to success is to keep chasing after it until you get it. You cannot achieve success by being constantly going on and off the road of progress because you went off to eat some marshmallows. If you do that you’ll just become successful at eating marshmallows. Is eating marshmallows something you want to be an expert at? Something to think about right?
It doesn’t take a genius to be successful, it just takes a hard working genius. 
I love this experiment and have seen it on TV. So cruel:) Those poor kids! And that bottom spanking drawing. Haha!
Unfortunately I have scientific proof on my blog that persistence (psychologists call it grit) is the key to success! But in your last paragraph – “The secret to success is to keep chasing after it until you get it” – you say that yourself. I suppose if you haven’t got the self-discipline you won’t keep on trying despite the inevitable ups and downs on the rocky road to success.
Not sure I’m ready to end up like Bil Gates though…:)
Hey Annabel, you are right. If there isn’t self-discipline a person wouldn’t be able to handle the ups and downs that is bound to happen in life.
If a person just gives up simply because of a failure, then there will be no chance of real success for that person.
Tht is where discipline comes into play.
I’m sure someday you’ll be the female gates lol, we all hope we will be
Right on Steven!
I think there are more factors involved though, but self-discipline is definitely key. You just can’t make it big without it, because you can’t make short term sacrifices for long term gain.
Eduard
Ideas With A Kick´s last blog ..Personal development ideas I can do without
Hey Eduard, I hear you on the other factors. But persistence definitely plays a strong role for me. If I always get distracted because of a freaking marshmallow, how am I ever going to move forward from the room? lol
I’m wary of tests like those because we really don’t know why the kids did or didn’t grab the marshmallow; it’s not always self-discipline. There could have been many more reasons based off teachings at home.
However! You’re still giving out crazy-good advice, Steven. Self-discipline is very important. We can’t just sit around waiting for someone else to make our lives wonderful…they may get it wrong!
Set your goals, follow your heart, and you’ll have tons of marshmallows in the end.
Hey Eirien, I think you are right on the unknown factors. Many kids could’ve just been scared to be punished as a result for eating the marshmallows.
But to tell someone who is 4 year old to NOT DO something is basically allowing their curiosity and temptations flow wild. And for kids who actually managed to resisted opening their pandora’s box is in my opinion a pretty good disciplined kid.
I like what you said at the end especially lol LOTs of marshmallows! That’s exactly what I’m hoping for…:D
Steven,
I’ve heard about the marshmallow test before. I think you make a good point about self discipline. I think that success has a compounding effect. Each little action or thought that you deposit into your success bank earns interest and the more you do it, the more interest you will earn. I’m working on a post based on this concept right now.
Srinivas Rao´s last blog ..Why you should forget everything you’ve learned about blogging if you want to be a good writer
Hey Srinivas I agree with you. With each bit of success on the way, you start to build momentum to want to achieve further and bigger successes.
Therefore, it is usually best to start off a new project with easy tasks that we are confident to pull of successfully first. Once that momentum is built and that confidence is in the right place, we will have more motivation to take more actions.
I love this experiment, I’ve seen it on TV a couple of times. I also like the “potential hobo” drawing. I wonder how much nature vs. nurture plays in this. Specifically, I’m wondering if those kids who were able to resist, were taught some of these principles either through active teaching or by the example led by the parents. I’m willing to bet that good parenting has a lot to do with this.
Eric | Eden Journal´s last blog ..WIN a $25 Amazon Gift Card! 5 Weeks of Contests, 5 Chances to WIN. Week 4
Hey Eric, nice question you posed up here. The concept of nature vs nurture does play basically all the roles in a kid’s future success. However, to say which weighs more…I’m not really sure my self.
However, as a personal opinion, I’d say that those kids who successfully resisted did have good enough environments that taught them to be more self-disciplined.
So I agree with you on the good parenting
Oh and thanks about the “potential hobo” compliment
haha
Hi Steve ..thanks that’s a great story .. I particularly like the sentence:”The ability of an individual to delay instant gratifications with consistency over time guarantees the success rate of happiness and fulfillment in people.”
I’m sure that all the peoples of the western world, would be a lot happier if they learnt this and abided by it .. and then Bill Gates would be part of the crowd.
Time – what is important .. do that – but don’t eat marshmallows!
Thanks – all the best Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
Hilary´s last blog ..Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat …Christmas through the ages ….
Hey Hilary, I’m glad you liked that sentence. I think it is very important to persist at a goal, otherwise it won’t be much of the goal that you are going after…but rather your distractions.
Hi Steven.
It sure is hard to keep from taking the marshmallow. There is no reason to not do so if there isn’t thinking for long-term gains elsewhere, so those who don’t take the marshmallow are thinking further beyond the scope of that small moment.
This is also a good point to remember when we see someone not take the “marshmallow” in front of them. There is always another “marshmallow” down the road that is in mind.
Strong discipline does a lot to rid us of problems of over-indulgence, excess, or lack of appreciation.
Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..Discussion On Long Versus Short-Term Efforts
Hey Armen, you are absolutely right. There is another marshmallow down the road. However, the more we stay focused at the goals that we currently hold, the more “marhsmallows” we will receive at the end.
I agree with you on how it rids us of those problems. A lot of problems in life are generated simply because people believe that success on easy and wonder why they aren’t as successful as they had hoped.
I’d have eaten the marshmallow – am I in trouble?
ha – joking…
You know me, Steven, I’m all about doing experiments to understand the world around us. What gets me about experimentation, though, are the ends of the bell curve. The outliers. Sure, on average the results make sense. And, of course, persistence is not usually a bad thing, but what about the outliers who ate the marshmallow AND got good grades, too? I suspect there must have been at least a few. The outliers.
Just food for thought.
Again, LOVE the comics!
~Lori
Lori´s last blog ..My Writing Experiment – The End
Yes you are in trouble Lori!
lol jk
Yes I see your point Lori, the research did report that there are a FEW kids who ate the marshmallows that ended up doing well in school and in their lives.
However the fact that 100% of those children who avoided eating the marshmallow all became successful shows a clear correlation between discipline and success/happiness.
Personally speaking, if that test was done on me, I would’ve just eaten it right after that dude gave it to me xD. I did manage to graduate and goto university, however, I really believed more disciplined could’ve helped SO MUCH more.
Thanks for commenting Lori, made me think
I liked this quote that I found on the blog- Hippy Urban Girl
“ Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure.” (sidney harris) ”
Rebecca Stees´s last blog ..December Views: (Dec 1)
Hey Rebecca, thanks for the quote. It is indeed very truthful.
Mate, that first cartoon looks like me on a monday morning.
Must be disciplined, must be disciplined.
Really? Wow…so…what do you do on a Monday night then? xD
I love reading these kinds of post. Good to know that out of all those traits mentioned in the beginning it’s the self-discipline that I should focus on most. Add some creativity and perseverance into the mix and there’s no stopping me
Great stick men pictures too!
Hey Robby, thanks for reading dude. You sure are right on how self-discipline is the one you should focus on the most. Because the only result you get without discipline is the success of you being distracted.
Another great visual depiction of what happens when we can’t refrain from eating sugar. I knew it had more to do with ultimate life lessons on success than obesity! (I’m kidding here — but LOVED your imagery; my gosh your site is awesome!)
You’re reminding me that while having fun is a worthy goal, self-discipline is nice to add to the mix so that all that fun has context and isn’t taken for granted. Work hard, play hard. I think I know where that phrase comes from now.
Be well!
Megan “JoyGirl!” Bord´s last blog ..7 Steps for Climbing the Staircase to Joy
Hey Megan! Actually you’ve hit the right spot there a bit with the obesity lol. Obesity has a strong correlation with self-discipline. I mean who is there to stop all of the kids to eat 100 marshmallows if it is right in front of them? lol
I agree with you on the having fun part. Although self-discipline is an important factor to success, having fun is also an requirement. You gotta make the process of pursuing results enjoyable and passionate, otherwise the pursuit of happiness and success will only bring you the opposite.
You brought a good point
It’s official: I’ve got “potential hobo” written ALL over me. Best to just embrace it, I suppose… go with the flow!
Self-discipline and persistence play a huge role in whether we accomplish our goals. Now, whether that results in financial success has more to do with what our goals are. David (Raptitude) made a brilliant case today for why you are far more likely to cash out on being a phenomenal basketball player than being an equally phenomenal backgammon player.
No matter how hard you work, or how much you love what you do, if you want large amounts of money for it, you’d better be working at something OTHERS value as well.
Cool discussion… I’m adding it to the Passion Paradox convo!
Lisis´s last blog ..Net Worth vs Self Worth: The Passion Paradox
Hey Lisis, excellent point you bring in. We decide where to direct our path of effort, focus and discipline down to.
As far as the net worth goes for me, I’m not looking to make huge amounts of money, however, I would like to make some that makes me comfortable enough to live in. But you are right, look at Bill Gates, worked hard to create the one of the most internationally revolutionary OS – in which ALOT of people value.
I guess the message here could be – work hard, but also work smart.
Thanks for adding me to your discussion Lisis, glad to be a part of it.
[...] Steven, from Human Explosion, makes a case for self-discipline as the key to [...]
Hey Mr. Hoot,
This is an awesome experiment…and so freaking cruel…but it works.
Self discipline is the key….but self understanding with self discipline can work wonders too
Oh…and the illustrations are awesome as usual
Zeenat{Positive Provocations}´s last blog ..The Decision To Be You
[...] Instant vs. Delayed Gratification – One of my key posts in March was this wonderful one about different levels of gratification. We each have a certain degree of gratification we normally maintain. It’s good to see how our attitude can change if we delay gratification a little bit, as compared with our current state. Dragos from DragosRoua.com also wrote about The Marshmallow Test, and Steven from Human Explosion also wrote about it in this post titled Scientific Evidence on the Key to Success. [...]
[...] the Delayed Gratification by instituting the Right Instant Gratification. We can all learn to get two marshmallows, but for now we’re the one one marshmallow kid, and that’s what you work with. February 2nd, [...]
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[...] the Delayed Gratification by instituting the Right Instant Gratification. We can all learn to get two marshmallows, but for now we’re the one one marshmallow kid, and that’s what you work [...]