EP13: Playing the Long Game with Dorie Clark

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asks Karin Reed. She argues this question is just as relevant for adults as it is for children, leading to a discussion about balancing immediate productivity with strategic, long-term goals. In this episode, Karin talks with Wall Street Journal bestselling author Dorie Clark about the critical practice of long-term thinking in a society fixated on immediate results.

 

Dorie, known for her work in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes, shares insights from her book, “The Long Game.” She highlights the struggle of finding time for strategic thinking in our busy lives and emphasizes the importance of structural changes for sustained success.

 

Dorie provides practical advice for leaders to foster a long-term mindset despite short-term pressures and introduces the concept of “optimizing for interesting”—pursuing meaningful activities that lead to fulfillment and success. Her personal anecdotes illustrate how small, consistent steps yield significant outcomes. She also discusses how to effectively communicate strategic visions, balancing humility with necessary self-promotion. Her straightforward approach helps listeners share achievements without boasting.

 

Dorie’s advice emphasizes the power of small, consistent steps and pursuing meaningful activities to achieve long-term success. Tune in to gain invaluable insights from Dorie Clark and learn how to develop a strategic mindset and optimize your path to fulfillment and achievement!

 

Quotes

• “I’m always interested in questions about how people make meaning in their lives. And it seems like in our modern society, there’s really kind of two pat answers that, in the discourse, are often viewed as diametrically opposed… You optimize for money or for meaning. And I actually think that there’s a useful third way that we can be thinking about, which is optimizing for interesting. (08:29 | Dorie Clark) 
• “If you’re optimizing for money, a lot of times, we know, culturally, people can be quite unhappy. Money gets you to a certain place, but it doesn’t get you to the finish line. It is necessary but not sufficient. But if you’re optimizing for interesting, you’re choosing things that are genuinely meaningful and cool to you.” (09:18 | Dorie Clark) 
• “It’s important to remind people: It’s not that whenever you were pursuing whatever goal it was, or career it was, you weren’t just sitting eating bonbons. You actually did things. You met people, you made connections, you learned skills. And many of those skills and many of those connections are probably transferable. It also means that you see the world in a slightly different way, which sometimes can be extremely helpful.” (25:13 | Dorie Clark)
• “One thing that I want to encourage people to think about—and this is a concept that I share in the long game—is that, ultimately, if we’re all sort of suffering under the yoke of being pulled in too many directions, having too many things to do, we have to recognize that, inevitably, there are going to be times and there are going to be moments when that is necessary. About short term results, sometimes you gotta just make it happen. But it’s also true that if we want to be smart about long-term thinking, we can’t always be doing that.” (27:44 | Dorie Clark) 

 

Links

Connect with Dorie Clark:

https://www.dorieclark.com/thelonggame

 

Connect with Karin Reed:

Website: www.speakerdynamics.com

Speaker Dynamics University: https://university.speakerdynamics.com/

Speaker Dynamics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerdynamics/

Karin Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-reed/

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