The rich always think in terms of delayed gratification...

[Jon Q.]

"The rich always think in terms of delayed gratification… This is the process they all have in common, whatever they put their mind to."

-TheProbabilist.com

[Zachery Buffin]

I would say that delayed gratification doesn't come naturally to any human being, biologically it isn't really how we are wired. I think the real thing here is that wealthy people tend to understand value better than the average person. 

To use one of your examples, Warren Buffet, he thinks of the loss or gain of a dollar not in terms of the dollar itself but the generation potential that dollar has to make more dollars. When the average person spends a dollar on a soda they don't see the loss of the dollar(s) that dollar had the potential to make if they had invested it instead of buying a soda. A dollar is just a dollar to them.

CEOs that founded important/successful companies understood the value of their product before it was a household name. Wal-Mart is successful because they saved money through revolutionary distribution practices then passed them on to customers because they understood that the profit impact would be made up in volume. 

Delayed gratification isn't the solution, goal shifting and understanding value is. When you save money for investments you are selecting new goals and prioritizing them over lesser value items. I suppose that can be called delayed gratification but it isn't really. You just have shifted your understanding of assets and liabilities and replanned your spending accordingly.

Just a thought, cheers!