Don’t Eat the Marshmallow … Yet!

Arthur is a chauffeur who is intellectually gifted. Jonathan is no less bright than Arthur, equally hard-working, and a billionaire. So why is Jonathan in the back seat of the limousine and Arthur in the front? What separates their levels of achievement? What explains the difference between success and failure? Joachim de Posada found the answer in a landmark Stanford University study of children who were able to delay gratification-in the form of a marshmallow they'd been given to eat-with the promise that they'd be rewarded with an additional marshmallow if they resisted eating the first for 15 minutes. The study's real significance came a decade later when the researchers discovered that the children who held out for the reward had become more successful adults than the children who had gobbled their marshmallows immediately. Posada was convinced that the key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification. "Marshmallow resisters" achieve high levels of success while the rest of us eat all our marshmallows at once, so to speak--accumulating debt and dissatisfaction no matter what our occupations or incomes. But it doesn't have to be that way. Using a simple parable and real-life examples, this session will show you how the moves you make today can pay off big tomorrow--if you just don't eat the marshmallow ... yet!