An interesting experiment called the Marshmellow Challenge was conducted by a design consultant
named Peter Skillman.
He worked with 4 unique teams.
A group of recent business degree graduates, a group of lawyers, a group of CEO's who ran
their own companies, and a group of kindergartners.
He provided each of the teams with the following tools.
20 Sticks of Spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, and a single marshmallow.
Now the rules for this challenge were very simple.
Each team had about 20 minutes to try to make the tallest structure possible with the marshmallow
on top.
And the structure had to be able to stand on it's own.
Now this challenge may seem rather simple and straightforward but the results might
actually shock you.
See the teams that did the worst were actually the recent business graduates.
Following them, in third place were the lawyers In second place were the CEO's
And in first place, with the tallest structures, were the kindergartners.
Wait...how is this possible?
Because it's without a doubt that a group of CEO's, people who run multi-million dollar
businesses, should be more competent than a group of kindergartners – kids who are
still learning their ABC's and simple math.
How in the world did the kindergartners win?
Well here's how the experiment usually went for most of these groups.
The first couple of minutes were usually spent getting organized.
Figuring out who was in charge.
Figuring out who would do what.
Then the groups would spend a decent sum of time arguing about which method was the best.
They would hold votes and vote for the best idea.
And then finally after all of that planning they'd put together a prototype and finish
right on time with just seconds to spare.
But, more often than not they would fail.
Most of these prototypes, most of their structures, were unable able to stand on their own.
The only group that didn't follow this sort of protocol were the kindergartners.
They didn't plan, they didn't argue about who was in charge, they didn't vote for the
best idea.
They just jumped right into it.
Making prototype after prototype.
Failing and failing, but constantly trying again.
And by the time the 20 minutes were up they had tried on average 5 different structures
as compared to the average of just 1 structure the other groups made.
The kindergartners won because they tried and failed more than any other group.
So Improvement Pill, what's the point of this?
Why are you telling me a story about kindergartners and marshmallows?
Well, this experiment actually gives us a lot of insight on how we should approach certain
problems in our own lives.
I see this happening all the time.
So many of us, when confronted with new obstacles and challenges, get obsessed with planning
and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Some of us think oh I just need to read another book to make sure I know exactly what to do,
some of us think oh I just need to go back to school and get a better degree so that
I'm more qualified, some of us think oh if I just wait and wait for the perfect time
when all the stars align, then I'll take a shot and it should work out.
We spend way too much time thinking and planning and not enough time doing.
But as you can see from this simple little experiment, sometimes it doesn't matter how
competent you are.
It doesn't matter if you are a CEO or a lawyer or have a business degree.
Because you can be beat by a group of kids who can't even tie their shoelaces simply
because they try and fail more than you do.
Don't get me wrong.
Learning is incredibly important as it exposes us to new ways of thinking.
But often times we become paralyzed with information.
Remember, it's important to learn but it's equally if not more so important to take action
and test out what you've learned to see whether or not it will work for you.
And it's ok to try and fail because then you'll know what doesn't work and you'll be able
to get further the next time you give it a shot.
And trust me, you'll be surprised by just how far you can get and how much you can accomplish
by just giving things a shot.
That's the lesson of this video.
This episode was brought to you with the help of the guys at Blinkist.
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