What’s the secret to success in life? Some people think that delayed gratification is the secret to success. Delayed gratification means to give up pleasure now to get a greater reward in the future. Here is an easy example: You stop yourself from eating junk food during the winter, so when summer comes, you will look good at the beach. In 1972 there was an experiment. It tested children’s ability to delay gratification. In this experiment a researcher offered a small child a choice. The child could have one marshmallow now or 2 marshmallows if the child could wait for 15 minutes. The researcher left the child alone in the room with one marshmallow on a tray. The child was filmed with a secret video camera. Most of the children couldn’t wait and soon ate the marshmallow.