I’ve referred to the long game previously, the perspective of considering the long arc of your story and a patient pursuit of an awesome life.

In the two Walt Disney biographies I’ve been reading, I keep coming across an even longer perspective. Disney was driven by a vision of a future he knew he would never personally reach.

Imagine that your work will outlive you by 50-plus years or so. Even if the memory of you fades, what can you contribute that will endure? How can what you do and what you make now reverberate into future generations?

“Make a fifty-year master plan. A fifty-year master plan will change how you look at opportunities in the present.” –Walt Disney

It’s not about ego. You’re going to be gone in just a few years. But thinking through the long, long game can add possibilities to your work that a shorter perspective just can’t.