Capacity to suffer and sustain

The companies which have the capacity to suffer and sustain are miracles. For instance, Amazon and GEICO. Amazon has been not focusing in its profitability as much as it focuses on becoming the market leader or the willingness to fail more. GEICO, an insurance company lost $250 dollars on every policy it sold for the first year. However, it gained on an average $150 for every year on the same policy over the lifetime of policy.

In 1972, Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford University, organized a Marshmallow experiment. In it the children can take a Marshmallow immediately or they can wait 15 minutes and will get 2 Marshmallows. What will you do in such a situation? Will you take one immediately or will wait 15 minutes? Request you to note the answer so that hindsight bias doesn’t try to deteriorate the thinking process.

As human nature, we are more likely to have the Marshmallow immediately instead of waiting for those 15 minutes. The same happens with us in life. We can’t absorb the pain or we don’t have the capacity to suffer for those 15 minutes.

No Pain No Gain

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However, those children who chose to wait patiently for 15 minutes have a bright life ahead. As they can replicate this same behavior with money and other shopping purchases. We have the tendency to spend money as soon as we have it in our hands. It takes will power and patience to just sit with the cash lying around.

A thousand dollar today can be worth of million dollar over a course of time. Compounding is a known magician of this universe.

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