Alright, the title is a bit profound and sophisticated that I dare not mention credit to where I took it from. I recently started reading an interesting book titled; How To Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky) by Naval Ravikant and Babal Nivi. The title is the name of chapter 10.
I believe playing the long-term game is the easier part. In a way, we're all playing a long-term game whether we're aware of it or not. Be it in career, business or our personal lives. Life itself, is the ultimate long term game. Isn't it?
The harder part is finding long term people to play with. Not many are patient enough to think long term or even see the necessity of playing long term. Instant gratification is preferred and highly sort after than delayed gratification.
Consistency And Compound Interest
In chapter 10 of the book, it is said that all benefits in life essentially comes from this marvelous force that we call compound interest. However, the force can only work for us when we play long term and even better, when we play with long term people. It was sort of a light bulb moment reminding me of the saying when you want to go far, go together.
One of the reasons why consistency is highly praised and a prerequisite in playing the long term game is because at its core it builds momentum. Apart from becoming better and gaining more rewards, there's also less friction which means more speed when moving forward.
In business or career, making frequent switches especially when unnecessary can be a terrible move because there's always a key element of starting again and building momentum from scratch. The art business is different from the agriculture business just like being a fashion model is different from being an engineer.
And based on personal experience, it's always way harder than it looks at first when starting again from scratch. Without consistency in playing the long term game, compound interest can't do much for us. Because there isn't any structured process to engage and reap its benefits. For example, it's hard to build a strong network when you keep on changing places.
On the long term people part, it's mostly building trust and creating win-win situations. If both or all parties win, there's a high tendency for them to continue playing together especially if the incentives are aligned or they share the same objective(s).
Although a case can be made for being self-made, if we really want to be successful we have to work with people, figure out who to trust among them and play the game for a really long time. That's how we build something big and steady, 10x leveraging the power of compound interest.
In Conclusion
In the long term, we're baking a big pie. In the short term, we're all cutting a share from a small pie that hasn't been fully baked yet. I know the analogy is far from perfect but I think it gets the point across.
Most things in life are just better when we think and play long term with people who do the same. Be it in relationships or making money.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.