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This episode is from our friends at the podcast Wisdom From The Top, featuring our very own Stacey Vanek Smith! Stacey Vanek Smith has reported on business and the economy for over 15 years now, first for public radio's "Marketplace," and now as the host of Planet Money's daily podcast "The Indicator." Over that time, she's seen the same barriers blocking advancement for women in the workplace again and again. Recently, she's started to recognize that a lot of tools to move past those barriers can be found in the work of Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.

The marshmallow test needs no introduction. Walter Mischel’s ingenious experiment – first conducted in 1968 – has entered the pop culture canon. The study has even spawned an adorable series of YouTube imitations, such as this clip featuring little kids wrestling with temptation: The experiment went like this: Mischel invited a four-year old student at […]