Play the long term game

I get to learn this concept in the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

“Play the long-term game with the long-term people,” Naval said.

Society embraces short-term results. It’s attractive. It gives us metrics to see where we are at the moment. But short-term results carry frictional costs, which eat a huge part of our gains.

Short-term business deals always carry frictional costs. People are getting into each other’s ways to get their shares of profits.

Long-term deals carry the compounding factor, which results in a win-win scenario. The best investments are long-term, and they benefit from unrealized gains. There is no middleman, no frictional cost, no taxes, no profit, and no loss.

Everyone gets to keep the unrealized gains forever.