Frequent comparative ranking can only reinforce a short-term investment perspective. It is understandably difficult to maintain a long-term view when, faced with the penalties for poor short-term performance, the long-term view may well be from the unemployment line ... Relative-performance-oriented investors really act as speculators. Rather than making sensible judgments about the attractiveness of specific stocks and bonds, they try to guess what others are going to do and then do it first.
Finance is about being short-term greedy, rather than thinking about the markets as a critical part of our society that exist to empower the world, rather than to enrich a few.
I learned that in senior football it's about managing the game. People are playing for contracts and playing for careers, so when you're 1-0 up or 2-0 up, you have to see the game out.
Once, I thought I had a novel, and it turned out it was only a short story. I wrote about 800 pages, but it ended up being a short story. And if it ever happens to me again, I Will Go Insane.
I'd much rather be worrying about playing that note in tune, and picking out the best way to arrange the song, rather than thinking about pricing for the download. It's not art.
Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.
I prayed about it, and I do believe that the Lord, at least in my life, likes to use one-year contracts and not long-term contracts.
When you're 'recruiting' people in temporary positions for the firm (short-term contracts, free-lancers, etc.) treat them well: remember, they're the only ones who actually do any work.
Deciding to commit yourself to long term results rather than short term fixes is as important as any decision you'll make in your lifetime.
And physically and mentally, there were times when Newcastle first sent me out on loan, where I felt I was getting bullied. I was used to Under-23s football, tiki-taka, but in the lower leagues, it's about results and putting yourself about.
I have a short-term view, just keep going game after game. The position we end up will be what we deserve.
The most self-disciplined people in the world aren't born with it, but at one point they start to think differently about self discipline. Easy, short-term choices lead to different long-term consequences. Difficult short-term choices lead to easy long-term consequences. What we thought was the easy way led to a much more difficult life. I think that motivation is sort of like a unicorn that people chance like a magic pill that will make them suddenly want to work hard. It's not out there.
Being proactive is more than taking initiative. It is recognizing that we are responsible for our own choices and have the freedom to choose based on principles and values rather than on moods or condition. Proactive people are agents of change and choose not to be victims, to be reactive, or to blame others.
The most important thing that a company can do in the midst of this economic turmoil is to not lose sight of the long-term perspective. Don't confuse the short-term crises with the long-term trends. Amidst all of these short-term change are some fundamental structural transformations happening in the economy, and the best way to stay in business is to not allow the short-term distractions to cause you to ignore what is happening in the long term.
Business is all about learning to balance the short-term, medium-term and long-term and I think it's when things are going well it covers up a lot of mistakes and bad decisions because you're growing so quickly.
As we get older it is our short term memory that fades rather than our long term memory. Perhaps we have evolved like this so that we are able to tell the younger generation about the stories and experiences that have formed us which may be important to subsequent generations if they are to thrive.I worry though, about what might happen to our minds if most of the stories we hear are about greed, war, and atrocity