Archive for April, 2008

Could the ability to restrain yourself from eating one marshmallow make a difference between struggling through life and the ability to retire wealthy and early? Yes it can, according to a study done in the the 1960’s by Stanford University psychology researcher, Michael Mischel. The study tested 4-year old children’s ability to delay gratification. The researcher then placed a marshmallow in front of the child and gave him/her two options. The child could eat the marshmallow, or he/she could wait until the doctor came back from an errand and the child would receive two marshmallows. Only 1/3 of the children were able to wait until the researcher returned. I read the story in the book Influencer: The power to Change Anything (a book I would highly recommend by the way), but you can also find more details on the story here.

I know, it doesn’t really seem like a big deal right. Well, they followed these kids into their adulthood and it turned out that the children who were able to delay gratification and wait for the second marshmallow were more successful, had high paying jobs, and tended to be more happy people than the ones who choose to eat the marshmallow. Think about it. The ability to delay gratification means you can save and invest when others are spending money on various things they don’t really need, you can control what you eat, make yourself exercise, push yourself through school when others are partying. This one small behavior has the ability to completely change your life. I know, it is much harder than I make it sound. Luckily, according to the book, Influencer, this behavior can be learned. Since the two books have a lot of similar ideas, I would also encourage you to read Made to Stick.

However, in some cases it really is simple. Most people give up on investing and even saving because they feel it is too difficult. But put in the context of the marshmallow story, finance and investing is really not eating one marshmallow so you can have two. You don’t spend your money, put it in some type of investment, and then it becomes more. The behavior that has to change is the “not spending” part. But, as i mentioned in an earlier post, it gets much easier once you get used to it.

So your tired of Windows right, but maybe aren’t quite ready to go to an Apple (or can’t afford it). Then you might consider moving to Linux. Ubuntu has been putting out great releases, and best of all it’s free. If you aren’t quite convinced if you are ready to give up windows, you can even run it off a cd. I have been using Ubuntu Linux for over a year and it has been great. The Hardy Heron release not only does it have pretty much everything that Windows has, it is also a lot more stable and much less likely to get viruses.

Ubuntu has 5 flavors: Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Gobuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu. The difference between them depends on how many features you want and the interface you prefer. I use Ubuntu, but most window users may prefer Kubuntu. There are a lot of great programs (most are free) and they will do all the functions that you can accomplish on your Windows or Apple machine. So give it a try and you may find yourself switching as well.

An amazing example of creativity and dedication I found on You tube. To think the amount of time it must have taken to create the following is amazing. Lots of time and lots of dedication. Enjoy.