People
are often categorized into groups by things like their gender, race,
height, year of birth, and nationality. Then all sorts of assumptions
are made about each person based on their combination of these
labels.Those labels mean nothing to me. They don’t tell me anything about the individual because the individual had no choice over any of them when he or she was born. Each person was just given those labels.
What’s
vastly more interesting to me is whether the person is a short-term
thinker or a long-term thinker. Each person gets to choose which of
these categories he or she is going to operate within.
A
short-term thinker focuses on doing whatever he or she can do to get
a good short-term result. The short-term thinker idolizes shortcuts.
Shortcuts are fast ways to get really good results, but that are not
capable of producing good results consistently over the long term.
A
long-term thinker focuses on doing things that will generate good
short-term results on such a consistent basis that the long-term
results are good as well. The long-term thinker realizes you can’t
get poor results all of the time in the short term and expect to get
good results over the long term. The long-term thinker abhors
shortcuts because he or she knows they breed habits that can’t
sustain success.
This
is such a subtle difference between short-term and long-term thinkers
that it may seem insignificant. However, the ramifications over time
are undeniably dramatic in every area of life.
Education
The
short-term thinker stays up all night to cram for an exam, gets an A,
and then forgets everything he or she learned on the topic. The
long-term thinker steadily does homework, asks questions in class,
takes good notes, and is well-rested and prepared for each test. This
person also gets an A on the test, but is prepared to produce at this
level consistently over time. The short-term thinker eventually hits
a ceiling because all he or she knows is what can be crammed in
during an all-out session.
Health
The
short-term thinker goes on a crash diet to lose thirty pounds. The
long-term thinker works out four to five times a week and eats
well-balanced meals and keeps his or her weight at a reasonable level
on an on-going basis. The short-term thinker eventually gains the
weight back plus a bunch more.
Athletics
Two
dads stand beside each other at a youth basketball game. The one
child is eleven months older and much taller and stronger and faster
than the other child. The older child’s father is a short-term
thinker. He thinks, “My kid has what it takes to be a great
player.” The other child’s dad is a long-term thinker. He thinks,
“We’ll just keep working on skills and see what happens.” Ten
years later the two children are the same size and height and
strength and speed. The younger child has much better skills and goes
on to play college basketball. The older child has never really moved
beyond the glory days of being eight years old.
Business
The
short-term organization rides a trend in the marketplace to get good
results, but does not have the processes in place to produce good
results when the trend comes to an end. Apple, being the long-term
organization that it is, has focused consistently on building
insanely great products and developed a process that has produced a
series of homerun products. If one product didn’t work out, they
had the habits in place to produce another great product. Same is
true with Walt Disney (long term focus on delivering quality family
entertainment), Rolex (long-term focus on creating extraordinary
watches), Ralph Lauren (long-term focus on providing easy luxury),
and Toyota (long-term focus on building extraordinarily reliable
cars). Even when these companies ran into hard times or made
mistakes, they still maintained their long-term thinking approach.
The
World’s Greatest Business Challenge
The
greatest challenge in business is not to achieve success. The
greatest challenge is to sustain success over the long term. In order
to do that, you have to consistently maintain a long-term thinking
approach.
As
you run your business or your part of your business, I’m asking you
to think about this question, “How can I generate the best possible
result today in a way that allows us to generate more good results
for many years to come?” That is a significantly different question
than, “How can I generate a great result today?” One is for
long-term thinkers and the other is for short-term thinkers.
Avoid
shortcuts and achieve results in ways that allow you to be successful
again in the future.
About
Dan Coughlin
Visit
www.thecoughlincompany.com.
Dan Coughlin is a leading authority on managing for long-term
business success. He is a business keynote speaker, seminar leader,
and executive coach on leadership, innovation, and branding. He is
also the author of four books on generating sustainable, profitable
growth. His clients include McDonald’s, GE, Toyota, Prudential,
Coca-Cola, Marriott, Jack in the Box, Boeing, Abbott, Denny’s,
Subway, Holder Construction, Kiewit, Ace Hardware, and the St. Louis
Cardinals.
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