the disease is most virulent in public companies I was reminded this morning of a series of studies led by Walter Mischel at Stanford University in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In these experiments, children were offered one small reward immediately or two small rewards after a period of time. These experiments highlighted a […]

the disease is most virulent in public companies I was reminded this morning of a series of studies led by Walter Mischel at Stanford University in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In these experiments, children were offered one small reward immediately or two small rewards after a period of time. These experiments highlighted a number of things, including: Most children are reluctant to wait, and the majority take the short term reward. Children who chose to wait in the experiment tended to have better outcomes in life. The experiments initially found that the vast majority of children were not prepared to delay gratification – despite the promise of better returns. Longitudinal assessments found that those children who were prepared to delay gratification became more successful adults. Delayed gratification was found to be an indicator of long term success. Of course, children are not alone in preferring immediate or short…