Success requires a paradoxical mindset: commit to a long-term vision (e.g., a decade) while being relentlessly consistent with daily actions. Compounding only works over long time horizons, so outlast competitors by sticking to the process for the 'thousand days' it takes to see exponential growth.

Prioritize sustainable, long-term growth and value creation over immediate, expedient gains that could damage the business's future. This philosophy guides decisions from product development to strategic planning, ensuring the company builds a lasting competitive advantage instead of chasing fleeting wins.

Instead of optimizing for a quick win, founders should be "greedy" and select a problem so compelling they can envision working on it for 10-20 years. This long-term alignment is critical for avoiding the burnout and cynicism that comes from building a business you're not passionate about. The problem itself must be the primary source of motivation.

True agility isn't just about sprints; it's psychological. By breaking massive projects into minimal viable products (MVPs) or small features, the team creates a steady stream of "quick wins." This builds a sense of progress and happiness—a "dopamine type of reward"—that keeps the wheel of innovation turning and prevents teams from getting bogged down.

Reconcile long-term vision with immediate action by separating time scales. Maintain "macro patience" for your ultimate goal. Simultaneously, apply "micro speed" to daily tasks, showing maniacal urgency by constantly asking, "What would it take to do this in half the time?" and pulling the future forward.

LEGO's CEO has settled on a four-year strategic planning cycle as the ideal cadence. He finds three-year plans create a constant sense of urgency, while five-year plans feel too abstract. A four-year horizon is long enough to execute major initiatives but short enough to remain tangible and relevant.

Most product orgs focus on the 6-12 month medium term, which is the hardest to predict and control. Shopify's design teams are pushed to ignore this messy middle and focus only on the very long-term North Star and the very short-term actions they can take today, creating a more effective planning process.

Pursuing huge, multi-year goals creates a constant anxiety of not doing "enough." To combat this, break the grand vision into smaller, concrete milestones (e.g., "what does a win look like in 12 months?"). This makes progress measurable and shifts the guiding question from the paralyzing "Am I doing enough?" to the strategic "Is my work aligned with the long-term goal?"

Contrary to the belief that private ownership removes short-term pressure, Mars' CEO argues that long-term, generational goals are achieved by delivering strong short-term results. He uses the analogy of a marathon, which is ultimately won by running a series of sprints, highlighting that both time horizons are critical for sustainable business.