Introduction
Long-term thinking—the ability to think about the future, over days or even years—is one of the key skills for any entrepreneur. It’s also one of the most challenging. With so much happening in our fast-paced world today, it can be difficult to focus on anything other than what’s happening now. I’m sure you’ve seen articles like this before: “5 Ways To Be Better At Long Term Thinking” or “6 Must-Have Skills For The Entrepreneurs Of Tomorrow.” We all know that it’s important to take a long view when planning your next big project, but how do we actually do that in practice?
Our natural inclination is to focus on short-term planning.
In the workplace, we are taught to think in terms of short-term goals.
We are given yearly performance reviews and expected to produce results quickly. If you work for a startup, your boss may be even more demanding–and if you don’t deliver on your promises within a few months, you can expect them to replace you with someone who will.
The same goes for education: students are evaluated based on their ability to achieve short-term success (good grades), not long-term growth or development as individuals or citizens of society. The same goes for most fields of study: while some professions require some amount of patience (like medicine), most other careers focus on getting things done quickly rather than doing them well over time–whether that means creating something new from scratch or tweaking an existing idea until it works perfectly.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the endless stream of news and information coming at us every day.
But it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the endless stream of news and information coming at us every day. It’s easy to get distracted by what you think is important, or what everyone else is talking about. You might even find yourself scrolling through your Facebook feed with little idea of how long you’ve been sitting there–and then suddenly realize that two hours have gone by without any productive work being done at all.
This kind of productivity drain has become so common that we’re starting to accept it as normal: If we’re not working on something useful for eight hours straight each day, then we’re doing something wrong. And yet this kind of thinking misses out on one important fact: Long-term thinking is essential for success in any business venture or project–and short-term thinking will always lead down an unproductive path in which deadlines are missed and opportunities lost forever because they were never recognized in time!
Long-term thinking helps us make more informed business decisions.
Long-term thinking is an important part of making informed business decisions. When we plan for the long term, we are able to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment and based on emotions. Long-term thinking helps us avoid short-term needs that may not be in your best interest in the long run.
The art of long-term thinking isn’t about being idealistic, it’s about doing what works today and tomorrow.
Long-term thinking is not about being idealistic, it’s about doing what works today and tomorrow.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that “the future is already here–it’s just not very evenly distributed.” This quote comes from William Gibson, who also wrote Neuromancer, one of the most iconic novels about cyberpunk and virtual reality. In fact, if you’ve read any of my previous posts on this subject (or watched our video), then you’ll recognize some similarities between what I’m talking about here and our vision for the future of work: self-directed teams working at their own pace; flexible hours; remote work…the list goes on! But let’s focus on one thing in particular: long-term thinking.
Long-term thinking strengthens business relationships.
Long-term thinking strengthens business relationships.
It’s a two-way street: the more you invest in your customers, the stronger their loyalty will be to you. You can’t buy their trust, but with long-term thinking, you can build it over time by demonstrating that you care about them and their needs. They’ll know that if they have a problem with your product or service, they can count on your company to address it quickly and efficiently–and they’ll also appreciate being able to rely on your business as part of their community (whether online or offline).
Focusing on the long term allows you to avoid excessive risk-taking, which can lead to failed products and services that hurt your bottom line in the long term.
Focusing on the long term allows you to avoid excessive risk-taking, which can lead to failed products and services that hurt your bottom line in the long term.
For example, if you’re building a product or service and focusing only on short-term goals like quarterly sales numbers, then it’s likely that there will be no incentive for innovation or improvement. If this happens at an individual level within your company, then your team may become stagnant over time as well; nobody wants to work for someone who doesn’t care about their career growth!
Are you taking a longer view with your business plans?
Are you taking a longer view with your business plans?
As a business owner, are you thinking beyond the short-term? Have you considered what it is that you want to achieve and how that can happen? If not, then it might be time to take a step back and consider what steps need to be taken in order for things to come together.
There is nothing wrong with having short-term goals – they help keep us focused on what we need to do right now. But if we don’t have any long-term plans or objectives then we could find ourselves working towards something without really knowing why or where it is taking us.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. The art of long-term thinking is not just a good idea, it’s also the way to go if you want to create a successful business. The benefits of this approach are numerous and varied–from stronger relationships with customers and partners to better decision making that can help your company thrive in the future. And while we all know that life doesn’t always pan out exactly as planned (especially when it comes time for those quarterly reports), this kind of mindset will help keep things on track when unexpected twists do occur!