I've been in this industry for over fifteen years. Long enough to see trends come and go. Long enough to see people optimize for the wrong things.
The ones who win — really win, in a way that lasts — aren't the ones who moved fastest. They're the ones who thought longest.
I think in years, not weeks. Short-term wins that damage reputation aren't wins.
The long game
Most decisions look different on a long time horizon.
Cutting corners saves time this week. It costs time every week after that — in bugs, in confusion, in the slow tax of technical debt.
Overpromising wins the deal today. It damages trust tomorrow — and trust takes years to rebuild.
Chasing trends keeps you current this quarter. It leaves you with a graveyard of abandoned projects next year.
Burning out ships the feature on time. It costs months of reduced capacity afterward — if it doesn't cost you the person entirely.
The math that makes sense in weeks often doesn't make sense in years.
What I optimize for
Reputation over revenue spikes. I'd rather make less money from work I'm proud of than more money from work I'm not. Reputation compounds. Revenue spikes don't.
Sustainability over heroics. I'd rather ship consistently for years than burn bright for months. The teams that win aren't the ones that crunch hardest. They're the ones that maintain pace.
Trust over optics. I'd rather be someone people can rely on than someone who looks impressive. Looking good is easy to fake. Being reliable is not.
Durability over virality. I'd rather build something that works for a decade than something that gets attention for a week. Most things that go viral are forgotten in a month. Most things that last never went viral at all.
The consulting lens
In consulting, this matters more than anywhere else.
My business runs on reputation. Every engagement is an audition for the next one. Every client is a potential reference — or a potential warning to others.
Short-term thinking in consulting looks like:
- Taking projects you can't do well, because the money is good
- Overpromising to win the deal, then underdelivering
- Billing for hours instead of solving problems
- Creating dependencies so clients can't leave
Long-term thinking looks like:
- Only taking work you can do excellently
- Setting realistic expectations, even if it costs you the deal
- Solving problems in ways that let clients succeed without you
- Building relationships based on trust, not lock-in
I've turned down projects that would have paid well because I knew I couldn't do them well. That felt expensive in the moment. It was cheap compared to the reputation damage of doing them poorly.
Compounding effects
The reason I think in years is because of how compounding works.
Skills compound. A little bit better each day, each week, each month. Over years, the gap becomes enormous.
Relationships compound. Trust built slowly, over many interactions. The best opportunities in my career came from relationships that were years in the making.
Reputation compounds. Each project adds to — or subtracts from — how people perceive you. Over time, reputation becomes its own gravity.
Systems compound. Good architecture makes the next feature easier. Bad architecture makes it harder. The difference grows with every addition.
Compounding is slow. It's invisible in the short term. But it's the most powerful force in careers, businesses, and life.
What I've seen go wrong
Optimizing for the current quarter. Hitting the number at the expense of next year. I've watched companies sacrifice their futures for their presents. It never ends well.
Burning bridges. Treating relationships as disposable. The industry is smaller than you think. People remember.
Chasing shortcuts. Looking for the hack, the trick, the unfair advantage. Most shortcuts are just disguised dead ends.
Ignoring maintenance. Building without maintaining. The shiny new project gets all the attention. The critical system that actually runs the business rots.
The hard part
Thinking long-term is easy to say and hard to do.
Short-term pressures are immediate. Long-term consequences are abstract. The deadline is today. The reputation damage is someday. The human brain is wired to prioritize the urgent over the important.
It takes discipline to:
- Say no to good money for bad work
- Invest in relationships that won't pay off for years
- Build systems properly when cutting corners would be faster
- Rest when there's more you could be doing
The payoff for long-term thinking doesn't show up on a weekly dashboard. It shows up in where you are five years from now.
The principle
I think in years, not weeks.
Not because I'm patient by nature. Because I've seen what happens when people aren't. Because the math works out differently on long time horizons. Because the things that matter most — reputation, relationships, skills, systems — all compound.
Short-term wins that damage long-term reputation aren't wins. They're just losses you haven't paid for yet.
The goal isn't to move fast. It's to still be moving in ten years.