Brad Feld Quotes

An entrepreneur never thinks of quarter-on-quarter; he thinks for 25 years, 50 years.

The point is to explore whatever may be helpful for thinking, understanding, and acting responsibly over long periods of time.

The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.

The Congress is not willing to think about the long term. They act like activist shareholders, to use that phrase again. They're not thinking about what can we do that will make us richer, safer, and stronger next year, and the year after, and five and 10 years out.

I think the biggest single thing that causes difficulty in the business world is the short-term view. We become obsessed with it. But it forces bad decisions.

Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.

My advice to fledgling entrepreneurs is always the same: build a company that you plan to be with for the next 10 years - that is the best way to increase your chances of success.

The one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight... It should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead.

Men who think in lifetimes are of little use to statesmanship.

Those who think only for a year, they sow food grains; those who think for a decade, they plant fruits; But those who think for generations, they prepare humans.

Before dreaming about the future or marking plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you - as entrepreneurs do.

Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity it is as if we are talking about the past.

I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term.

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

My job is to think beyond the immediate.

We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking.

If we think long term, we can accomplish things that we couldn't otherwise accomplish.

I think somehow people should be encouraged to think about a very long time horizon and I think this is true for businesses, it's true for governments and it's true for people doing things in the non-profit sector.

One who thinks and reflects develops his foresight and vision.

A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.

Vision is seeing a future state with the mind's eye. Vision is applied imagination.

Whilst large organisations need foresight, they are also notorious in their bias for short term thinking, sometimes rejecting or even suppressing foresight.

Every human action gains in honor, in grace, in all true magnificence, by its regard to things that are to come. It is the far sight, the quiet and confident patience, that, above all other attributes, separate man from man, and near him to his Maker; and there is no action nor art, whose majesty we may not measure by this test.

I never think of what it's going to be like later. I only think in the present tense. The only time I think backwards is when I have to reissue something.

Innovation comes from long-term thinking and iterative execution.