Thinking long term is hard – so hard that Jeff Bezos, one of the smartest entrepreneurs on the planet, has invested 42 million dollars into a 10,000 year clock that symbolizes the importance of thinking long term. I think long term thinking is something we do very badly in our own lives. Most thinking horizons rarely exceed a couple of years (at most). For the most part, we are focused on the next few weeks.
This is one area where I like the systems corporations follow – make five year plans, make commitments and review them every quarter. One of the ideas I am thinking about is implementing that in my life. I’ve probably done 5 year planning 2 times (!) over the past few years but I’m not sure I’ve followed up adequately. Thinking long term is extremely powerful and it needs to be made a habit.
The reason corporations don’t make it work so well is because the the pressure on the CEO to deliver short term results (thanks to pressure from stakeholders who generally don’t have much of a clue) messes the system up. But, if we were to implement it on ourselves, we’d be able to execute with the long term in mind. Additionally, I think the exercise of determining our 5 year goals – across dimensions like health, relationships, finances – and then preparing a quarterly review would in itself be a terrific learning experience.
Bill Gates says we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year but underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. Perhaps it’s time we fixed this.
More to follow..
A Learning a Day 