Years ago, researchers at Stanford University conducted an experiment with four-year-old children. The researchers placed the children, one at a time, in a room with a marshmallow and told each child they were going to leave the marshmallow in the room with the child for 15 minutes.

If, after 15 minutes, the marshmallow was still there, the child would get another one. That is a 100 percent return on investment in 15 minutes – not bad, even for a four year old. However, if the child chose to eat the marshmallow, he or she would not get a second.

Something very interesting happened. Two out of three children went for it and ate the marshmallow. Some took 5 seconds, some 30 seconds. Others took a minute or two, even 5, 10 or 14 minutes. The children who didn’t eat the marshmallow played with their clothes or walked around, anything to take their minds off that marshmallow. Some looked at it, licked it or even nibbled at it. But it was still there when the researchers returned.

Fourteen years later, a follow-up study was done on the children. Every child who had not eaten the marshmallow was “successful.” These children exhibited superior thinking skills, had excellent grades and scored an average of 213 points higher on their college entrance exams than the kids who’d eaten the marshmallow. They had great relationships with their parents, teachers and friends. They had clear goals and plans for how to reach them, and were well prepared to face the world after college.

On the other hand, of the children who’d eaten the marshmallow years before, some had dropped out of school. Others were unemployed or were working in low-paying jobs such as delivering pizzas, pumping gas or waiting tables. Some had alcoholism and drug problems or were in debt.

What can we conclude from this experiment? I believe we can say that the ability to delay gratification is one of the most important factors for success in life…that having discipline, character and will power, and being willing to pay the price now, will reap benefits later. This realization is what prompted me to write the book Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life.

The concept of delayed gratification has huge implications for our personal and professional lives. Personally, for example, if you make the decision to save 10 percent of everything you earn from your 20s or 30s until you reach 55, 60 or 65, you will be a millionaire. Yet over 80 percent of our citizens must continue working when they reach age 65 because they don’t have the funds necessary to maintain the standard of living they had when they were working. Can you depend on Social Security? I wouldn’t bet my future on it.

Let’s say that professionally you are a salesperson. If you’re with a prospect who says she wants to buy A, B and C, and you pull out your order form and start taking the order, you ate the marshmallow. Not eating the marshmallow – practicing delayed gratification – would be assuring the prospect that you do have A, B and C, and asking her what type of problems she is facing that A, B and C would solve. When she starts talking, you will probably realize that she needs A, B and C as well as D, E and F. Your sale will likely be much bigger than the original order the prospect was going to give you.

Delayed gratification even applies to countries. Many countries (including ours, unfortunately) are eating all their marshmallows and more, while other countries (China, South Korea, Singapore, Ireland, etc.) are not eating all of them and saving quite a few. The consequences of instant gratification to our society will be devastating if we do not change our ways.

Whether the ability to practice delayed gratification is genetic or a learned behavior goes beyond the scope of this article. What is important to know is that you have a choice to do something about it. The key difference between success and failure is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification. The moves you make today can pay off big tomorrow if you just don't eat the marshmallow...yet!