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The Long And The Short Of It

© Herb Wexler

You are 30 years old. At least lets assume so for this discussion. Decisions you made when you were 20 affect your life at age 30. Possibly good, possibly bad. Some decisions you knew would have long term repercussions such as what major to study in college. Others were definitely short term such as what topping to have on the pizza. Some twenty year olds make lots of decisions for the near term but few for the long term. At 30 they may regret the lack of long term planning. Others did the planning and regret the lack of experiences that spontaneity brings.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. The problem is he may go hungry until he masters his new skill. So, which is better the short-term solution or the long term? There is no 'right' answer.

People love to argue about government policies. The classic disagreement is big government vs small government. Higher taxes and more government services (redistribution of wealth) help the most people in the shortest time. Lower taxes and fewer regulations allow more businesses to start and grow. In the long run (possibly too long) more people will have a higher standard of living. I think the real difference between political theories is one of time.

Since I talked about politics, I feel obligated to touch on religion. Most religions believe in an afterlife with rewards and punishments for actions taken in the present life. This is very long term. If you are not careful, you may miss opportunities because of the belief things will sort themselves out in the hereafter. Perhaps you treated someone unfairly (accidentally of course) and instead of making amends now, you'll just wait until you see them in heaven. Or there are wrongs that should be righted but there is no need to get involved in worldly affairs so you wait.

Most decisions that turn out to be very wrong are because it was for the wrong time frame. You come up with a quick, dirty solution to what you think is a one-time problem, and then it becomes a fundamental piece of your business. Alternatively, you put great effort into designing a new product and only one customer uses it.

Some businesses fail because they don't have any long term strategic planning only reacting to the problems of the day. Other businesses get in trouble because they think only long term-never getting products out the door.

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