Introduction
Professional success in different fields depends on multiple factors, including human qualities and abilities that allow them to achieve the established goals and desired results. Delayed gratification, or patience, is an exemplifying element of human personality that can appear as both a quality and an ability, giving people an opportunity to succeed in their respective fields. However, there is an active debate in the scientific community on whether delayed gratification can contribute to or determine professional success. This paper aims to critically evaluate the assumption that delayed gratification, or patience, is a major factor in professional success. For the purposes of the research, the paper provides examples of innovative technologies and political elections to trace the influence of delayed gratification on the outcomes in different fields. Patience may play a significant role in professional success, but the impact can be both positive and negative, depending on the field and whether it is the professional’s natural quality or internalized ability.
Patience and Impatience as Partners in Innovation
First, patience can have both positive and negative impacts on professional success, depending on the field of activity in which delayed gratification is implemented as a concept. For instance, Norling (2009) reports that patience can be paramount for innovation leaders in business “to avoid latching on to the first opportunity and going too rapidly into business” (p. 20). The development and application of innovative technologies in the business sector, indeed, can bring significant benefits to companies, but, at the same time, impatience can be a source of devastating consequences. The process of creating an innovative product or service is always associated with a certain amount of risk as the related technology may not work or not be accepted by customers well. Rapidness in the process can significantly increase that risk: minor but critical details may not be appropriately attended to, and the error rate can get higher. Thereby, a business leader utilizing innovations in their professional activity should be patient to achieve successful outcomes.
However, impatience can play a crucial role, as well, since it can accelerate the development process and help the company get ahead of its competitors. Suppose two companies are developing similar innovative technologies, and the one that finishes sooner will have the advantage as it will be able to go into the market first. However, if that company completes the development sooner but its technology is less efficient or flawed, the other one will be able to regain the advantage because of the utilized approach of delayed gratification. Thereby, some business situations require leaders to have both patience and impatience to reach professional success (Norling, 2009). The business innovation process should proceed cautiously and accurately to avoid any errors and the loss of resources in case of failure. At the same time, the process should be quick to improve the overall speed of development and ensure an advantage over business competitors. In this case, impatience is not an injudicious rush but the ability to act quickly and effectively, minimizing the risks and maximizing effectiveness simultaneously.
Overall, innovative technologies, whether they are developed and implemented in the business sector or any other field, contribute to the world’s technological progress, improving the life quality of people inhabiting the planet. Patience in innovation improves its effectiveness, while impatience can determine the time when humanity reaches another point in technological progress, which is why researchers call patience and impatience “partners in innovation” (Norling, 2009, p. 19). Patience, in this case, appears as a significant factor of professional success for innovative leaders and people working on particular technologies and products directly, but so is impatience. An overly-patient innovation can be irrelevant or even outdated when it is finished, which is why it is essential to be both patient and impatient during the development process, depending on its phase.
Indirect Influence of Patience
Furthermore, delayed gratification may be involved in professional success indirectly based on various impactful factors. That assumption can be traced in the political field as the professional success of a politician partially depends on whether they have or have not been elected. However, the election results always depend on voters much more than political representatives. The voting process, in turn, is associated with people relying on a particular politician: they place their vote now to receive the result further, which exemplifies delayed gratification. That is the primary reason why more patient individuals are usually more willing to vote and donate, and vice versa (Schafer, 2021). In this case, the politician’s professional success depends not on their patience. Voters’ patience determines their readiness to believe in the politician at the moment and receive the reward later. It means that it is not always the professional’s patience that influences their success as it can be the patience of other people.
Everything mentioned above illustrates that delayed gratification may appear as a dependable variable in different situations based on the specific context. Researchers argue that patience, along with humility, compassion, and communication skills, proves to be the key characteristic in achieving academic, social, and economic success (Folta et al., 2012; Yanaoka et al., 2022). However, delayed gratification is not always a determining factor in professional outcomes. People who want to achieve success should perceive patience not as a consistent quality but as an ability that should be internalized and utilized when the situation requires it.
As a human quality, the concept of delayed gratification can lead to both negative and positive consequences; but patience as an ability can be highly influential in one’s professional activity. Barragan-Jason et al. (2019) report that “individuals with high levels of patience fail to show behavioral flexibility” (p. 2). In other words, patient people can be divided into two groups: those who are naturally patient and those who can be patient when required by the situation. Delays do not bother the former group, while the latter group can tolerate delays in accordance with the context to achieve the best possible results.
Conclusion
Overall, delayed gratification may be an important factor in professional success, but it depends on the field of professional activity and the way patience is applied – as a quality or an ability of a person. Some activities require time and attention to detail to achieve the desired outcomes, and patience, in this case, can be a determining factor in professional success. However, other fields may require confident decision-making and dynamic performance with a certain amount of risk to achieve the best possible results. Naturally patient people can be successful in particular fields, but behaviorally flexible individuals with the ability to tolerate delays have higher chances of reaching professional success.
References
Barragan-Jason, G., Atance, C. M., Hopfensitz, A., Stieglitz, J., & Cauchoix, M. (2019). Commentary: Revisiting the Marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2719.
Folta, S. C., Seguin, R. A., Ackerman, J., & Nelson, M. E. (2012). A qualitative study of leadership characteristics among women who catalyze positive community change.BMC Public Health, 12(1), 383.
Norling, P. M. (2009). In innovation, is patience a virtue?Research Technology Management, 52(3), 18-23.
Schafer, J. (2021). Delayed gratification in political participation.American Politics Research, 49(3), 304-312.
Yanaoka, K., Michaelson, L. E., Guild, R. M., Dostart, G., Yonehiro, J., Saito, S., & Munakata, Y. (2022). Cultures crossing: The power of habit in delaying gratification.Psychological Science, 33(7), 1172-1181.