Book review: The Long Game, by Dorie Clark

Ben Marshall

It is one of the greater challenges of life and leadership: how to plan for the future with the demands of the immediate. Many have called this struggle, "The tyranny of the urgent." There is a desire to think long-term, to plan for that not-too-distant future, but the urgent things get in the way.

There is another email. Another meeting. Another deadline due this week. The future will have to wait. Then, all of a sudden, we arrive in that future place stuck in the same spot we were three years ago and we wonder where the time went.

Dorie Clark, author ofThe Long Game: How To Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World,takes this challenge head-on. She writes with authority and experience, bringing a depth of wisdom to an area of great need for most people, and leaders especially.

Clark writes in a friendly tone, like a wise friend over for dinner sharing their life experience with you. She doesn't just write from her own experience, but the experience of countless others, as well.

These others have different upbringings, different professional backgrounds, and live in diverse places around the world. Regardless of where you are, what your job is, and how well or poorly you play the long game right now, it is something you can do if you start to change your thinking.

Clark writes this poignant truth that hits the nail on the head: "We have to be willing to do hard, laborious, ungratifying things today—the kinds of things that make little sense in the short term—so we can enjoy exponential results in the future."

There is a cost to both short-term and long-term thinking. We make a decision every day about which cost we are willing to pay. Most often, it seems, we focus on short-term thinking at the expense of our long-term goals and plans. This book doesn't just tell you what you already know, but provides many steps along the way to help you grow from a leader living in the short-game to one playing the long-game.

There may be some ideological differences between some of my beliefs and Dorie's, but one thing I can say with certainty is that Dorie believes in what she writes and lives it out. And that is the kind of author worth reading. There is much to be gleaned from this book for every leader. I would strongly encourage you to grab a copy and begin moving from short-term to long-term thinking in your life and business.


Ben Marshall is a Pastor at Pathway Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He works with teenagers and young adults. He is passionate about leadership and raising up the next generation of biblical leaders. He is a blogger, guitar player and sports enthusiast. Ben currently resides in Beaver Falls with his wife Connie and their two daughters, Aliya and Sophie Learn More »

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