{"id":22746,"date":"2024-04-22T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=22746"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:45:05","slug":"deferred-gratification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/","title":{"rendered":"People who are good at deferred\u00a0gratification\u00a0is more likely to succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/#Freedom_is_worth_deferred_gratification\" >Freedom is worth deferred&nbsp;gratification<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/#Deferred_gratification_accumulative_time_compound_interest\" >Deferred&nbsp;gratification accumulative time compound interest<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/#Representative_figure\" >Representative figure<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/#Munger_also_recommends\" >Munger also recommends<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/#Relative_articles\" >Relative articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Freedom_is_worth_deferred_gratification\"><\/span>Freedom is worth deferred&nbsp;gratification<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept of &#8220;deferred&nbsp;gratification&#8221; comes from a child psychology study called the &#8220;Marshmallow Experiment&#8221; by author Walter Mischel in 1960. The researchers placed a marshmallow in front of the children and told them that if they could resist eating it within 20 minutes, they would get a second candy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow-up observations of these children show that most of the children who can wait until the second candy have better academic performance later. They have stronger social and cognitive abilities and are more comfortable than their peers in the face of setbacks and stress. By middle age, their rates of career success and family harmony are also higher than those of those who cannot persist in waiting (low latency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This experiment that lasted for nearly half a century finally illustrates a problem: self-control cannot be achieved simply by persisting or saying &#8220;no&#8221;, but by changing our way of thinking, and this thinking mode is &#8220;deferred&nbsp;gratification&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Deferred_gratification_accumulative_time_compound_interest\"><\/span>Deferred&nbsp;gratification accumulative time compound interest<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Representative_figure\"><\/span>Representative figure <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The representative figure in the business world is Zhang Yiming, the founder of the company that owns the now all-red social network Douyin ByteDance. If ByteDance is listed on the public market, the current value of Zhang Yiming&#8217;s ByteDance shares will beat all the property of Tesla founder Musk and become the world&#8217;s richest man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhang Yiming once said: &#8220;Half of the problems in many people&#8217;s lives are caused by the lack of delayed gratification. The essence of delayed gratification is to overcome human weaknesses, and overcoming weaknesses is for more freedom.&#8221; Zhang Yiming learned about it when he was in college. Practicing the concept of &#8220;delayed gratification&#8221;, he calls himself a &#8220;moral champion&#8221; and does not play games, cards, or watch DVDs. When Toutiao first started, many investors, including Tencent, came to him with attractive terms and wanted to acquire him, but he rejected them all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhang Yiming is a firm advocate of &#8220;delayed gratification&#8221;. He also specially released the cover photo of the book &#8220;The Road Less Traveled&#8221; to explain what &#8220;delayed gratification&#8221; is &#8211; simply put, giving up immediate gratification for more valuable long-term results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2010, he once wrote on Weibo, &#8220;Delayed gratification and resolutely saying goodbye to inertia are the two most important foundations of excellence.&#8221; He also said, &#8220;People with different levels of delayed gratification, It is impossible to discuss the problem effectively, because the depth of their willingness to explore and stay is different.&#8221;, &#8220;With the low degree of delay in satisfaction for most people, it is not their turn to compete for talent.&#8221;, &#8220;The common enemy of wisdom, Undelayed gratification, paralysis or fear caused by experience.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhang Yiming said, &#8220;The essence of delayed gratification is to overcome human weaknesses, and overcoming weaknesses is for more freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Munger_also_recommends\"><\/span>Munger also recommends<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Suggest you check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yapss.com\/post\/charlie-munger-s-secret-to-success-delayed-gratification-collection-charlie-munger-301\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Muger&#8217;s interview transcript on Delayed Gratification.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First of all \u201cGreat investing requires a lot of Delayed Gratification\u201d \u2013 Charlie Munger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Charlie Munger shared what he believed to be the secret to success: &#8220;\u201cIt\u2019s so simple to spend less than you earn, and invest shrewdly, and avoid toxic people and toxic activities, and try and keep learning all your life, and do a lot of deferred gratification,\u201d he&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2023\/05\/08\/warren-buffett-charlie-munger-berkshire-shareholder-meeting-life-advice-write-your-obituary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said at Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s annual shareholder meeting<\/a>&nbsp;in May. \u201cIf you do all those things, you are almost certain to succeed. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re going to need a lot of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said: &#8220;In the long run, people who can delay gratification will live better. Some people have been unable to control themselves since childhood, and when they grow up, they spend money randomly, buying Rolex, Patek Philippe and other flashy things. An adult should be diligent and frugal, should delay gratification, and should not squander freely.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The quality of delayed gratification is basically innate, and this conclusion has been confirmed in psychological research. If you have some talent for delayed gratification and you can cultivate this talent, you are already on the road to success and happiness.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/latticeworkinvesting.com\/2017\/02\/17\/charlie-munger-full-transcript-of-daily-journal-annual-meeting-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2017 Daily Journal shareholder meeting<\/a>, he siad &#8220;<em>I lived all my life with people who were into deferred gratification.&nbsp;In fact, most of them will never have any fun.&nbsp;They just defer gratification all the way to end, that\u2019s what we do.&nbsp;And it does cause you to get rich.&nbsp;So we\u2019re going to have a lot of rich dead people. (laughter)&nbsp;We can excite a lot of envy.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<em>A lot of you when the people walk by your grave and there will be this nice grave with this nice monument and they\u2019ll say, \u201cGod what a great grave, I wish I were under.\u201d&nbsp;But at any rate, deferred gratification really does work if what you\u2019re doing is growing a business that gets better and better and getting yourself so that your grave can look nice to outsiders.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"160\" height=\"115\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/dg-1600x1200-1.jpg\" alt=\"Deferred\u00a0gratification\" class=\"wp-image-22747\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: The WoodShedd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Relative_articles\"><\/span>Relative articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/30\/bytedance\/\">ByteDance, TikTok&#8217;s parent comapny, the world\u2019s most valuable unicorn<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/26\/long-term-investment-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Andy Lin&#8217;s long-term investment experience sharing<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/02\/24\/andy-lin-investment-style\/\">The key points of Andy Lin investment style<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/04\/22\/deferred-gratification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">People who are good at deferred&nbsp;gratification&nbsp;is more likely to succeed<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/10\/18\/lets-talk-about-tiktok\/\">TikTok, the rival of all social networks<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/01\/15\/duan-yongping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Duan Yongping\u2019s investment empire and his BBK Group<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/11\/20\/the-compound-effect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Compound Effect<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/09\/24\/compound-interest-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The power of compound interest<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/09\/05\/compound-interest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Simple and compound interest calculator<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/21\/why-long-term-investment\/\">Why long-term investment is better?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/08\/30\/irr-calculator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IRR Calculator<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/07\/25\/stock-worth-holding-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Investors should care annualized rate of return (IRR), How to calculate?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/04\/young-people-investing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The great enviable advantages of young people investing in stock<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/09\/18\/time-discipline-and-patience-are-the-three-elements-of-successful-investment\/\">Time, discipline and patience are the three elements of successful investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/05\/16\/patience-to-invest-success\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Patience, an indispensable element of investment success<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/01\/john-maynard-keynes\/\">John Maynard Keynes, Investment master<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/10\/16\/long-term-investors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stocks are the best bet for long-term investors<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/02\/15\/paul-gettys-how-to-be-rich\/\">Paul Getty&#8217;s &#8220;How to be rich&#8221;, by the world&#8217;s richest man in the mid-20th century<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More freedom is worth for who are deferred\u00a0gratification, self-control cannot be achieved simply by persisting or saying &#8220;no&#8221;, but by changing our way of thinking, and this thinking mode is &#8220;deferred\u00a0gratification&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1151,15,35,66],"tags":[546],"class_list":["post-22746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compound-interest","category-charlie-munger","category-long-term-investing","category-successful-investor-traits","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22746"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34557,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22746\/revisions\/34557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}