DELAYED GRATIFICATION: A NECCESARY SACRIFICE FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENUERS

Setting up your own business is not easy and that is why a lot of startups fold within their first three years. There are a number of challenges that one has to surmount before their business can become sustainable. Having the discipline to forgo some luxuries, especially in the first days, can help one have higher chances of success in their business venture.

WHAT IS DELAYED GRATIFICATION?

Delayed gratification refers to the ability to put off something mildly fun or pleasurable now, in order to gain something that is more fun, pleasurable, or rewarding later. For example, you could buy a car now or you could practice delayed gratification and invest the money into your business with the view that you can buy a much better car later on when your business gets established and profitable.

WHY IS DELAYED GRATIFICATION SO DIFFICULT?

It takes a lot of mental discipline to practice delayed gratification. This is because choosing between the smaller immediate reward and the larger pay-off later is an intertemporal choice, meaning choices that differ in the timing of their consequences. Instant gratification feels good 'immediately' whereas delayed gratification, though it has a better reward, will feel good 'later'. 'Later', in the case of entrepreneurs, may mean years, and this makes instant gratification an 'easy' choice.

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It does take something special to remain focused on the bigger picture of where one wants to go as an entrepreneur, its ultimately easy to lose motivation along the way, especially when faced with the inevitable challenges and choose instant gratification. Instant gratification usually feels bad soon after though, like how one would feel guilty soon after giving in to the temptation and eating candy when they are on a diet and are aiming to lose weight

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The bottom line is if you want to make it as an entrepreneur and indeed in many areas of your life, you will have to delay immediate gratification and focus on the long term goal and its much better rewards. Dr Maxwell Maltz, a famous plastic surgeon, author and motivational speaker in the 1950's and 60's, chose to forgo lunch for a whole month so that he could save and buy a stethoscope and he is not the only one who delayed gratification and had the last laugh. If you research on millionaires who came from humble beginnings you will find out that most of them had to practise delayed gratification when they were starting out.

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Delaying gratification does not end when money starts rolling in. We all have heard stories of people who start a business, stumble upon success and subsequently earn a modest profit. In turn, they spend all of their new money on relatively useless personal items; ultimately leading their business to its demise by leaving them with little to no money to reinvest in the company.

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Ultimately, the importance of delayed gratification in entrepreneurship is captured in the following quote whose author is unknown:

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

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So what will you choose between immediate and delayed gratification?

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