Exceptional People Think in Decades

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"If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you're competing against a lot of people. But if you're willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you're now competing against a fraction of those people." -Jeff Bezos 

The true scale of Amazon took decades—what it was able to achieve, and what it was able to fuel. In just over the seven-year timeline he referenced, Bezos brought Blue Origin to life and was finally able to make good on his boyhood dream of space exploration.

This is someone who thinks in decades…and it’s a marker of some of the most exceptional people on the planet. From Bezos to Buffett, the ability to set a dot in the sky, and find your way there isn’t about quick money—it’s about legacy.

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In my work, my largest clients are able to balance short-term time horizons while building for the decades to come. They don’t always know exactly what the path to the future contains, but they are building for something bigger than the current moment. They want to create legacies that live beyond themselves, and this desire changes how they move in the day-to-day. From what decisions they make to the projects they take on—it’s a long-term vision that serves as a filter—not impulse or cash grabs.

As a reader of this newsletter, I expect you already know what you need to do in the short term: the priorities you have, the immediate things to be done, and the three-year time horizon goals…and you’ll read about these everywhere.

However, this article will speak to constructing something bigger. 

If the scope of your ambition is to build something truly exceptional—then let’s look at what you’ll need to overcome and dig into to get there.