From The Long Game by Dorie Clark
These days, many of us rush through life feeling overwhelmed and numb. We keep our heads down, grinding away and fixating on the next task, stuck in perpetual “execution mode” without ever stopping to think about what we truly want from life.
We mask our strategic laziness with tactical hustle. If we just drift along, going through the motions, we’ll never reach our goals. But once we embrace long-term thinking and adjust our strategic plans over time, we can maximize our chances of success.
The real risk for companies isn’t incompetence - it’s having “smart people who know how to win, but are winning at the wrong things.” Jonathan points out that “you can fail by succeeding” when all incentives focus on short-term revenue targets (what senior leaders optimize for).
Being patient and putting in solid work isn’t easy - if it were, everyone would do it. I value patience because it reveals people’s true character. Can you stay focused on the work when future outcomes are uncertain and your progress goes unrecognized? Yet these are exactly the moments when we need to double down on our convictions and push through obstacles to get things done. That’s what strategic patience looks like.