Think Bigger. Sonnenfeldt Michael W.

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СКАЧАТЬ only were the preschoolers who were able to wait longer more focused, confident, and self-controlled as adolescents (the period when kids are most inclined to be out of control), but they also scored 210 points higher on their SAT tests.7 To make sure that those results were not directed by the overall social environment of 1960s and 1970s California, the researchers replicated the experiments in different socioeconomic and geographic populations. The results were similar.8

      What is particularly interesting is that the results seemed to correlate more with an individual’s innate personality than with their intelligence. Research conducted by Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Positive Psychology also bears this out. A former seventh-grade teacher, Duckworth decided to pursue a PhD in psychology to understand why it was that so many of her best-performing students were not those with the highest IQs. She has found that a student’s self-control predicts report card grades better than measured intelligence. Outside the classroom, the Duckworth lab has shown that stronger self-control plays a role in lower levels of smoking, marijuana use, and binge drinking, and correlates with lifetime earnings, savings, and reported levels of life satisfaction.9

      Is self-control a matter of genetic luck, or can it be taught? The latest research indicates that though we are all biologically prewired, nature is not as separable from nurture as was once presumed. While our natural dispositions tend to be more plastic in childhood, psychologists are learning that we can also change later in life by adopting more of an “I think I can” mindset. All of us will face momentary temptations that can distract us from our long-term goals. Mischel’s recent research shows that our capacity to deal with them depends on our ability to bring the distant consequences of our actions to the present to undermine the appeal of a given temptation.10 (For example: If I eat too much, I may become obese. If I smoke, I may get lung cancer.)

      I would add: If I don’t focus on growing my business, it will fail. I think it’s time for psychologists to study the one segment of the American adult population that is full of maestros of self-control: successful entrepreneurs. When you ask successful entrepreneurs where their self-control comes from, they’re likely to answer with their own questions: How else do you start a business and keep it afloat? How else could we compete or succeed? How do you power through the tough times to get to the successful times?

      One of the reasons that so many entrepreneurs who are successful right out of the gate lose steam is that they can’t resist the temptation to broadcast or just enjoy the fruits of their success. A seasoned entrepreneur himself, and a principal in a company that finances other businesses, George Heisel has witnessed this problem often:

      A couple has saved $200,000 to $300,000 between them, and they start a business, a diner, say. They use their life savings to advertise, spending $100,000 the first year. The diner grows, and it starts generating $150,000 in cash flow. They want to show how successful their new diner is, so they buy a Mercedes or a new house. Then the mortgage or car payments start, and soon they’re no longer doing the same amount of advertising as last year, and they can’t grow their business. And that’s why they fail, because someone else with more cash to invest will open a diner nearby.11

      Heisel resisted that temptation in 2001 when he started his own business, a medical supply company specializing in products for people with diabetes. For the first two years, he took no salary, plowing all his profits into advertising; as the business grew, he took only a small salary and made no distributions for seven years. He and his wife, a doctor, rented a house. It’s a common story among successful founders, many of who start their businesses with savings: They funneled their earnings back into the business while also squirreling away as much cash as possible for a rainy day.

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      1

      Neil Patel, “90 % of Startups Fail: Here’s What You Need to Know About the 10 %,” Forbes.com, January 16, 2015.

      2

      Edgar Schein, Career Anchors (San Diego: University Associates, 1985).

      3

      Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational (New York: HarperCollins, 2008).

      4

      Walter Mischel, The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (N

1

Neil Patel, “90 % of Startups Fail: Here’s What You Need to Know About the 10 %,” Forbes.com, January 16, 2015.

2

Edgar Schein, Career Anchors (San Diego: University Associates, 1985).

3

Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational (New York: HarperCollins, 2008).

4

Walter Mischel, The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (New York: Little, Brown, 2014), 4–5.

5

Michael Shermer, “Book Review: ‘The Marshmallow Test’ by Walter Mischel,” Wall Street Journal (September 19, 2014), https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-marshmallow-test-by-walter-mischel-1411160813.

6

Mischel, The Marshmallow Test, 23.

7

Ibid., 25.

8

Ibid.

9

Angela Lee Duckworth, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” TED Talks Education (April 2013).

10

Mischel, The Marshmallow Test, 33–37.

11

George Heisel, interview (July 14, 2015).

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