Time Horizons
#36: Long term thinking
Taylor Tomlinson started doing comedy in her church when she was in her teens. Today more than 10 years later she hosts her own show on CBS produced by Stephen Colbert, has two Netflix specials, and has sold out shows in some of the biggest theatres across the country. Her style of comedy is simple and her bits on everyday life is relatable. If you were to take a snapshot of Taylor’s life today. You would see the successful comedian.
But it is a story of over a decade to get to this point. Classic story of long-term thinking.
The idea of long-term thinking is a lot more tempting than many people think. We all know that long-term thinking is crucial for our careers, investing, and relationships. But it’s easier said than done.
“Be patient and think about the long term” is the advice doled out to anyone who is worried about the near future, as if saying that makes you skip all the hardships that happens on the way. There is no fast pass to skip the long wait times to you fav roller coaster. The key is endurance.
Taylor endured everything that comes with the success, including bombing on stage, doing the same jokes over and over again for a 1000 times, she shares in her shows about struggling with anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. She couldn’t skip the hardships to go from performing in front of 60 people in a church to performing for 6000 in NYC.
Since we can’t skip the hardships, the real question for the long-term then becomes ‘How to endure the deluge of hardships in the long term?’
But there is a fine line between being patient through endurance and being stubborn. Being patient can sometimes be used as a crutch to avoid changing one’s perspective. In a changing world, being stubborn is often justified by saying, “Oh you guys don’t get it, I’m looking at it from a long term perspective.
In Taylor’s case, the world was moving towards short form content. She embraced it and became the 7th most followed female comedian on TikTok. She pivoted from only performing comedy at open mics and comedy clubs to using TikTok to grow her audience. She wasn’t stubborn in sticking to the traditional paths for comedians - sell out comedy clubs → grow local audeince → go on a tour → sell out tours → grow audience nationwide → establish yourself as a comedian. She was flexible to reach a wider audience. Had she been on the “original” path, it would have taken her a lot longer to reach the point she is at today.
In thinking about long-term, her core focus remained stable. Taylor focused on the things that don’t change, “What makes her audience laugh?”. Her jokes that she weaves with life experiences. She didn’t focus on the things that change, “ sales at the show at “x” was “$y”. Of course that is important in the short run, but that was not the main focus. It acts as the steering wheel to your core focus. What makes her audience laugh is the crux of being a comedian and that will matter in 10 years, but the sales of a show in 2024 is not going to matter in 10 years.
There are only a few things in any industry, area, or life that do not change. Identify those things, bucket them together and focus on them for the long term. For everything else, be flexible, and adapt with the changing world.
So for long term thinking, patience is a virtue if there is a will to endure the short term hardships for a long period of time. Understand the line between being patient and being stubborn. Focus on the things that don’t change long term.
