This is a solid book on thinking strategically in a world that seems determined to have us all think and act with a short-term bias.

What I appreciate most about the book is that there are action items that enable us to actually put long-term strategic thinking to use.

This is helpful because a lot of times we walk away from books thinking that it would be great if we were able to add a little flavor to the experience by putting it to work.

Dorie Clark has written a non-fiction “how-to” book that reads as if she is offering the sincerest career (and life) advice to a dear friend over a frothy latte in a familiar place. The book provides clearly defined and memorable “lessons” that I sum up this way “if you want to be a recognized expert, you must be purposeful, focused, time-conscious, empowered and energized by your mistakes, and willing to dance to the beat of your own drummer.” It’s advice that resonates if you’ve ever thought, “how do thought leaders do it; are they superhuman?” According to Dorie Clark (a member of Thinkers50 and a definite thought leader), the answer is “you already have what you need. You just need to work it, even when the goal seems unattainable!” This book is a real kick-in-the-pants.

I'm so sorry - I only had this title as an acsm file, and it expired before I got around to reading it. My apologies!

I have given a 5-star rating by way of apology, and because I can't Give Feedback without giving a star rating.

Apologies again, and best of luck with your publications!

This is a very helpful, practical book for business owners and entrepreneurs. I appreciate Dorie Clark's style of writing and the clear way she explains what might be keeping someone back from moving forward, and how to think long-term so you don't burn out or expect too much too soon. Highly recommended for entrepreneurs and business owners!

Until I read this book, I didn’t realize how much of a short term mindset I had. I’m always looking to check off boxes and move on to the next thing and this book really helped me to take a step back and look to develop long term goals and outlooks. Great read before the new year.

Dorie doesn't disappoint. I've been a fan of hers for a long time, and couldn't wait to get my hands on this books. As usual, it's written in an easy to understand way with anecdotes, real-life examples, and plenty of practical (not magical, out of this world) tips that will get us to where we want to be with our long term career goals.

While this is a standalone book, I highly recommend Dorie's other books that lead up to this one too.

The Long Game is a 5-star must-read!
Go on, get yourself a copy.

THE LONG GAME

Dorie Clark offers a relatable perspective on long-term thinking in her book The Long Game: How to Be Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World.

More precisely, in The Long Game Clark writes about how to be a long-term thinker when it comes to one’s career goals and aspirations. In a sense, the book is all about keeping one’s eye on the ball. How do we set ourselves up for success? How do we make decisions that ensure we’re able to meet our career objectives? These may seem like mundane questions, yet finding the right answers is easier said than done.

Anyone who wants to be successful knows that becoming such requires hustle and often grasping every available opportunity. However, there comes a point when maintaining the same level of hustle and accepting every opportunity that comes one’s way actually becomes counterproductive. After all, there are limits to our time and attention, and however we devote these there will be substantial opportunity costs based on our decisions. Hence, sometimes we need to take a step back and get out of our own way lest momentum get the better of us.

In short, when we start out there’s nothing wrong with optimizing for opportunity. We have to pay our dues. But this is not a sustainable long-term strategy. On the other extreme, we can instead optimize for meaning, by making career decisions on the basis of what aligns with our own personal mission and values. However, Clark points out that there is actually a third alternative: to optimize for “interesting”; that is to say, to remain open to opportunities that could open new doors (aware of the fact that the worst that could happen is a whole lot of nothing).

Of course, the challenge lies in discerning which should be one’s appropriate mode, for which reason Clark devotes much of The Long Game to sharing stories by way of example. Readers can easily empathize with these, and as such the book itself serves a useful prompt for readers to examine their professional pursuits with fresh eyes.

The primary takeaway from The Long Game is simple: plan your career or business by thinking about where you want to be in 5 or 10 years and realize that it takes time and effort to meet your goals. Not all of the advice is unique, but there are plenty of insightful nuggets that challenge conventional wisdom. For readers who are frustrated with how their careers are going, this book offers encouragement and practical advice.

As a long time reader of Dorie Clark's earlier books, I knew I wanted to read The Long Game as soon as it came out. The author breaks down long-term thinking and strategy in a way that is both encouraging and accessible. She is generous is sharing the ups and downs of her own professional journey, as well as those of many other accomplished professionals that she interviewed for this book. Highly recommend for professionals looking to accomplish big things and needing practical steps and strategies for getting there.

I thought this was very insightful and well-written. It gave good, tangible tips and advice and I liked the incorporation of personal stories.

In The LONG GAME, the incomparable Dorie Clark offers a different perspective on living a meaningful, productive life. As in her other work, Clark is that perceptive, keen-sighted person you want by your side as you face the morass of information, demands, dreams, and deepest longings that characterize life in the 21st century. Her clear, wise voice is supported by scores of stories of others who have faced the impossible and found their way to fulfillment and genuine contribution on their own terms and in their own time. I loved this book -- did not want it to end -- read it for immediate and longer-range application -- and already see and feel a HUGE difference in focusing my attention on what is essential to me and accomplishing what is most important. I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

If you can only read one professional development book this year, make it The Long Game!

The Long Game is an actionable antidote to the self-sabotaging urgency experienced by so many professionals. Author, Doris Clark, offers a clear path toward greater success for those who are willing to eschew short-term thinking and the tail-chasing that goes along with it. The book is filled with memorable stories, personal examples and doable practices that make a real difference. I’m particularly drawn to her suggestions related to strategic patience, exponential growth, and raindrops of recognition. And don’t miss Dorie’s powerful questions for achieving leverage (that I’ll be revising on a regular basis.) I thoroughly enjoyed The Long Game… and will reap the benefits of reading it for a long time. (less)

New York Time’s “expert at self-reinvention” Dorie Clark and author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You, and Stand Out has done it again and is publishing The Long Game. If you find yourself feeling lost in the motion, stuck in the rat race, and unable to take time for yourself to even breathe — Long Game is a must-read.
By using her own life as a mirror, Dorie shared an intimate retelling of what it means to seek your true purpose in life and what’s right, not what’s obvious or easy. She masterfully weaved life lessons with her personal struggles to demystify success and explore what it means to think long-term in a short-term world.
Her journey from a young journalist to a brilliant keynote speaker, HBR author, and Duke University professor was not a straightforward path. Instead of doing what's easy, guaranteed, or look glamorous at the moment, she inspires us to move step-by-step to achieve our goals but being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or even unreachable. We must think and act in waves, to not lose our goals in an ocean of distractions.
Success is a long game. It takes discipline to always look for the bigger picture. My friend Dorie invited me to read the book prerelease and I highly recommend anyone who is feeling like they want to regain control of their lives and goals, to read The Long Game and reach their true potential.

The Long Game by Dorie Clark is a stark, no holds barred, and comprehensive guide to self-promotion to gain recognition currency. This does not mean you should not be in pursuit of realizing a humanity enriching meaningful purpose -- with a serious dedication to excellence in the expertise you hope to become recognized for -- but Clark does not dwell on that aspect of becoming a recognized expert. She instead adheres to explicitly, logically, and clearly explaining the philosophy, process, and practices of becoming a recognized expert. It will be up to the reader to direct their energy (hopefully) toward something that impassions and inspires them. And short of an all-consuming passion, pursuing what most interests them.

So, though my cynicism of self-promotion for the sake of gaining recognition came into play as I read further in the book, by the time I finished the book I had resolved that Clark had focused on the message she promised to deliver. With her focus, Clark provides us with a powerful guide that is enlightening, anecdotally enriched, comprehensive, and immediately implementable for anyone seeking to craft and deliver their message to the world.

In my case, as I finished reading the book, I prepared my prescription, tailored to my passionate pursuit where I need to become a recognized expert to deliver my message to the world. My prescription begins with my saying "NO" to everything not in my immediate aspirational focus. Along with saying "no," my first wave of thinking and work every day will be heads-down on the next relevant action towards achieving my long-term vision. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Until the results I seek begin to emerge.

Clark employs a three-part framework of: content creation (be heard) --> social proof (be recognized) --> network (be amplified) consistently throughout the book to make sense of her advice and guidance. With each prescriptive practice Clark provides exemplars of people putting them to work to achieve their objectives for personal growth, expertise development, and the recognition that validates their efforts.

One gem I greatly appreciated: If you intend to extend your reach beyond most anyone else in your field or area of interest, practice long-termism. Practice exercising an active and vigorous patience -- while planning with a longer time horizon than others. This give you the advantage of time analogous to harnessing the power of compound interest that, over time, gains you an unassailable advantage. And what a common-sense thing to do in a phrenic world with most players consumed by short-termism that ultimately produces mediocrity if not outright failure -- over time.

I think this is a very timely book as many of us struggle to reflect on our lives and re-invent ourselves in what is the new normal. Dorie provides several important tips and many important ideas to take a longer view on how to set up a long view for success in life and in business. I found "thinking in waves" particularly relevant to me, and I believe others should recognize the flow all of us go through in our lives.. I highly recommend this book for those who want long-term value from their contributions to this world.

Provides extremely helpful techniques for people to think about "the long game" and maximize creativity and productivity. Effectively sums up the problems that face professionals in our rapidly-changing world and provides actionable advice and insight to strategize future plans. The pandemic has forced everyone to change the way they live and Dorie emphasizes how we need to change our approach and strategically plan our "long games" to maximize a sense of happiness and purpose. An amazing read for anyone looking to build more strategic thinking into their day-to-day lives, filled with anecdotes and relatable material.

Like many of us, do you live your life on auto-pilot, rushing from one commitment to another, without carving out time to reflect on the kind of life you want to live? Are you optimizing for the wrong things? The good news is that there are concrete steps you can take to fix this. Clark's newest book will help you to discover what success really means for you and how to go about achieving your business and life goals.

"The Long Game" is an essential guide for anyone who wants to rise above the din of the crowd and learn to focus on what matters. It will help you abandon short-term people-pleasing in favor of developing a strategic view of your life and business goals so that you can live your life the way you want to.

In an easy-to-read format, you will have a clear understanding of the three habits of mind you need to cultivate to become a long-term thinker.

There are so many aspects of this book that I enjoyed. Here's a partial list:

• It's deeply insightful and superbly researched.
• All the insights are based on practical, real-world experiences. There's nothing kumbaya about this solid work.
• There is an abundance of case studies, stories, and anecdotes culled from the author's personal life and many others, including successful high achievers.
• I particularly appreciated the four powerful questions you need to ask yourself to help you decide whether or not you should say yes to requests, opportunities, or "(seeming) obligations." This tool alone is worth the price of the book.
• The concept of "Thinking in Waves" is required reading for anyone who wants to make intelligent choices about allocating their time and becoming a recognized expert in their field.
• I appreciated the helpful summary at the end of the book of the resources mentioned in the book.

What's more, throughout the book, you experience the Dorie Clark trademark: Independence, optimism, and resilience. It rubs off on the reader.

The book is an invitation to play the long game and will be a boon to everyone who wants something more out of their lives and careers, whether it's an entrepreneur, a mid-career or senior professional, a person planning for a retirement career, or a recent graduate.

If you're willing to bet on yourself regardless of what others around you think, and you're prepared to do the work, you will be on your way to thinking and acting for the long term. The work starts with reading this valuable book.

Most of us are in a hamster wheel - working furiously but getting nowhere. This book is the solution to get off that wheel, find your purpose and achieve success that feels meaningful. Another gem by Dorie Clark

I had the opportunity to read a digital preview of this book via Netgalley and I really liked the book.

What I liked about the book:

1. The book has been written in a way that makes it smooth reading. I was able to finish reading the entire book in a couple of days.
2. The real life examples that Dorie shares in the book makes it easier for the reader to adopt these recommendations in their lives. They remove all the excuses that someone might have (this will not work for me, I am not disciplined enough to be able to pull it off, it might take too much time/energy/effort and I don't have enough of them, etc.
3. Every chapter ends with a crisp takeaways from the chapter. If we don't read the book and just read these summaries, we can still takeaway a lot from the book.

What could have been better:

There is not much that this book lacks. So, nothing to report here.

The book has all the ingredients to not only make all the best sellers list but to be an impactful book for everyone who reads it.

PS: I am amazed at the variety of experiences that Dorie has had in her life. I guess he does optimise for "interesting".

Definitely a must read..

Are you stuck in a zone of permanent action? Perhaps you are getting a lot done, but it’s tactical – nothing really strategic or long term. In fact, you might not even know what long term plan you want to have, let alone be making steps towards achieving it.
The Long Game by Dorie Clark (HBR Press) is the answer.
It’s a book that will help you create the ‘white space’ that you need to clear the decks and work out what that long term plan might be. It also explains how you might get there, however winding the path.
The book also has something for you if you don’t think you would be able to work out a plan either. After all, many people don’t know where they want to go, and actually, a plan isn’t important.
The point is to open yourself up to opportunities and lay the ground work for what might come later.
The book is full of anecdotes and stories of how people have ‘focused where it counts’ and found that decisions they took years ago paid off in terms of networking connections and opportunities. It’s an inspiring look at the power of thinking longer term.
The Long Game is a pro-networking guide on what it takes to build long term relationships with no expectations that the contact will immediately ‘pay off’ with some kind of deal or work opportunity. In fact, the author recommends not making an ask of a new contact within the first year.
The book is also a reminder of what it takes to be truly recognized as an expert and what it takes to accomplish your goals. It takes a long time – don’t get discouraged if you aren’t making progress fast enough, because often ‘fast’ is unrealistic.
We all want to get where we’re going as soon as possible, but you have to put the work in. Take a small step and positive momentum will help you achieve your goals.
I found it an interesting book that prompted me to reflect on my own long term plans, such as they are, and think about how I could be making better decisions to set me up for success in the future – whatever that might look like.
It also prompted me to buy this to keep track of my network connections.
It’s an exercise worth doing regardless of what stage you are in your life or career. You might not end up there, but if you stay curious along the way, you are likely to end up just where you are meant to be.