Long-Term Success Requires Short-Term Focus.

If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.

Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.

many entrepreneurs focus only on short-term growth. They have an excuse: growth is easy to measure, but durability isn’t.

Too many people today on Wall Street go for the quick
buck at the expense of their reputation and client satisfaction, the
rationale being “let’s make the money while we can and retire early
in the sun.” For me, this is not a sprint but a marathon, besides the
fact that, in my definition, overnight success is 15 years. Anyone who
does not understand the basic tenets of this philosophy is not someone
I can or will do business with.

The most overlooked and underappreciated growth strategy is patience.

(More specifically, consistently producing great work over a long time horizon.)

You can skip all the parties, all the conferences, all the press, all the tweets. Build a great product and get users and win.

You want to be liked and respected in the long run, not the short run.

Most overnight successes — in fact, any significant successes — take at least 5 years. Budget your life accordingly.