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In 1938 while Mr. Honda as studying in school, he decided to invest all his earnings in a workshop. Over there, he started to work on the idea of a piston ring he planned to sell one day to the Toyota Corporation. He burned the midnight oil, worked arduously and finally produced the piston rings he desired. When he presented those to Toyota, they told him the rings did not meet the company’s quality criteria.
Had Mr. Honda opted for instant gratification, he would have instantly backed down and would have pursued something else. However, he had different plans for himself and he secede to stick to the decision he took in the first place. He kept working on those piston rings and presented them to Toyota again after two years. This time, he received his dream contact. However, when he thought things has started becoming bright for him, the Japanese government suffered from a war threat and began gearing up for it. The government did not oblige his request for the cement supplies he required to build his factory to manufacture the piston rings. Mr. Honda could have quit then too but he did not, he preserved.
Honda then planned to build his factory using his own concrete that he crated with his team. However, he face another setback when major parts of his manufacturing facility became casualties of war. Instead of dampening his sprit that setback presented him with another opportunity, he rallied all his team member and picked up gasoline cans thrown by the US fighters. Honda used those cans to gather all the raw materials he needed to manufacture the piston rings.
Mr. Honda survive this setback too, but fate had something else in store for him. An earthquake hit the city and leveled his entire factory. At that point, Mr. Honda sold the piston manufacturing facility to Toyota. Once the war was over, a huge gasoline shortage hit Japan and Mr. Honda could not even get food to feed his family.
In desperate times, created a bicycle to which he attached a tiny motor. Honda created several other motorized bikes that he stated to sell and ultimately built a plant to manufacture them. Honda did not have enough capital to produce those bikes so Honda decided to get help from other bike manufactures in the country.
Since his bike was a heave one, nobody was ready to invest in that sample. Honda worked on his idea again and crated a lightweight version of his idea and when he presented that prototype to bike manufactures, his idea brought Mr. Honda amazing success and he eventual built the Honda Corporation that now employs more than 100,000 people in Japan and the US.
While this story is quite a long one, you will understand why Mr. Honda succeeded in the end, because he knew he had to say committed to his decision and had to think long term,. Honda know delayed gratification is what would help him in the end. He encountered many instance that could have provided him instant gratification or provided him with an escape from all the excruciation troubles he faced in the present, did he back out? No, he did not. Honda knew he had to preserve and sustain his grit until he attained success, this is what he did and his results speak for themselves.
If like Mr. Honda, you too want unimaginable success, here is how you can nurture the habit of seeking delayed gratification.
