The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World | Dorie Clark

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

Your personal goals need a long-term strategy.

It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe.

How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek?

Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game.

As top business thinker and Duke University professor Dorie Clark explains, we all know intellectually that lasting success takes persistence and effort. And yet so much of the relentless pressure in our culture pushes us toward doing what's easy, what's guaranteed, or what looks glamorous in the moment. In The Long Game, she argues for a different path. It's about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard.

In The Long Game, Clark shares unique principles and frameworks you can apply to your specific situation, as well as vivid stories from her own career and other professionals' experiences. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours—but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Named one of the Best Work and Management Books of the Past Year by Charter

"…breezily presents very common sense advice about careers and business. Among Clark's recommendations: adopt the '20% time' approach popularized by Google and devote that portion of your time to exploring new areas." — Charter

"Dorie's book helps us … create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek." — Forbes

"Few people understand strategic thinking as well as Dorie Clark…" — Inc. magazine

"Clark's rich and varied background—college graduate at 18, award-winning journalist, presidential campaign adviser, documentary filmmaker, and more—uniquely positions her to advise people on how to accomplish anything they want." — Civil Engineering Magazine

Advance Praise for The Long Game:

"Filled with hard-earned wisdom, The Long Game is the book so many of us need right now. Dorie Clark's best book yet." — Seth Godin, author, This Is Marketing

"Dorie Clark has written an essential book that addresses the leadership challenge of our time: solving hard problems in a world with a limited attention span. The Long Game is a blueprint for building our organizational futures." — Frances Frei, coauthor, Unleashed

"As always, Dorie Clark delivers the goods. By telling the stories of an array of high achievers, she shows the importance of strategic patience and the enduring power of curiosity and resilience. Prepare to take notes!" — Daniel H. Pink, author, When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

"If you want to create a blue ocean strategy for your career, read The Long Game. In this essential guide, Dorie Clark shows you how to build a unique and powerful professional trajectory."— Renee Mauborgne, New York Times bestselling coauthor, Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift; Distinguished Fellow of Strategy and International Management, INSEAD

"If you've ever felt like you don't have enough hours in the day, you have to read The Long Game! Clark will help you strip away the things on your calendar that keep you from spending time on what's most important and achieving your ultimate goals." — Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author, Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won't Get You There; winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, Institute for Management Studies; and two-time winner, Thinkers50 Leadership Award

"The Long Game offers a thoughtful, practical, and compelling approach to achieving one's higher ambitions in a demanding, short-term-focused world. A very worthy read." — Doug Conant, founder and CEO, ConantLeadership; Chairman, CECP; former CEO, Campbell Soup Company

"If you want to take control of your life and career—and cultivate the habits for success—read The Long Game." — Charles Duhigg, bestselling author, The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

"To redefine success on your own terms and build a life that matters, read The Long Game." — Keith Ferrazzi, New York Times bestselling author, Never Eat Alone and Leading Without Authority

"This is one of those rare books that can help us refocus on what truly matters. Masterfully written and packed with actionable advice, Dorie Clark's The Long Game shows us how to break the every-day-is-a-sprint cycle and discover our comfortable, personal marathon pace." — Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; bestselling author, Rebel Talent

"If you're interested in building and living a truly meaningful life, this wonderful précis by my extraordinary friend Dorie Clark is for you. It's full of specific, actionable advice that you'll be able to apply immediately." — Hubert Joly, former Chairman and CEO, Best Buy; Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; and author, The Heart of Business

"Be prepared never to look at your life the same way again. The Long Game is a must-read for anyone desperate to be liberated from the shackles of the screen and discover a life post-Covid." — Martin Lindstrom, bestselling author, The Ministry of Common Sense and Buyology

"Success is not a question of how much stuff you get done. It's not even a question of what you manage to achieve. Instead, it's knowing your purpose in life and taking the right steps to fulfill your potential. Dorie Clark is one of my favorite writers, and The Long Game may be her best book yet. Filled with inspiring examples and practical advice for how to approach your career differently, this book will quite literally change your life. I highly recommend it." — Erin Meyer, author, The Culture Map; coauthor, No Rules Rules; and Professor of Management Practice, INSEAD

About the Author

Dorie Clark is a consultant and keynote speaker who teaches executive education at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. She is the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You, and Stand Out. The New York Times has described Clark as an "expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives." Her books have been translated into eleven languages. Learn more and download your free self-assessment at dorieclark.com.