Act long term

Today I went to my daughter Laura’s convocation from the University of Windsor. She graduated with an honours BA in English and Drama (with distinction) and won the Board Of Governor’s medal in Dramatic Art. Needless to say, her dad (that would be me) is proud.

It got me thinking. People tend to respect those who persevere. We respect people with university degrees because we know they sacrificed and stuck with it. The same is true in business. I get a lot of respect because I have been doing this for 25+ years.

People who can put off immediate rewards and work towards longer term ones tend to be more successful. Procrastination is often caused by people taking the short term reward (sitting on the couch and watching TV) over the short term sacrifice (going for a run or learning) to achieve the long term reward (fitness or knowledge)

I know that the only conflict I ever tend to have with my people is the long term vs short term discussion. I am a very long term thinker.

One of my favourite quotes is “we tend to over estimate what we can accomplish in a day but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year or a decade.”

A friend of mine recently emailed me the following:

“The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”

Appropriate thought.