Yahoo Finance 3 Ways Elon Musk’s ‘Longtermism’ Can Help You Achieve Financial Success
Most of us are busy thinking about the near term or the immediate future, due to the demands and responsibilities of our lives. Billionaires like Elon Musk, however, are known to take an approach termed “longtermism,” which plays a role in how they make decisions.
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So what is this philosophy and how can it help you achieve financial, or other, kinds of success?
In a nutshell, longtermism looks toward the long-term future when making even short-term decisions with an attitude that those of us living now should be holding that distant time and its people in mind.
More specifically, it “is the view that we should be doing much more than we currently are to protect the lives of future generations, and that positively impacting the long term is a key model priority,” William MacAskill, author of “What We Owe the Future,” recently told Slate.
MacAskill’s book covers this idea more in-depth — which Musk has read and admired. MacAskill implants the mindset that we must be thinking of the people of tomorrow — and not just our immediate children’s and grandchildren’s generations, but further than that, when making decisions today.
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What Does This Have To Do With Finances?
The truth is, longtermism may not necessarily help you achieve financial success now, but it can influence how you set up your finances, particularly things like leaving generational wealth or creating a legacy for your finances that can go to a greater good.
In a BBC article, MacAskill wrote, “The case for longtermism rests on the simple idea that future people matter.”
He added that we should care about the effects of things like climate change and resource depletion not only for our own sakes but for those who will come after us.
Though Musk has certainly reaped immense financial rewards from his endeavors, you can’t accuse him of only thinking of the moment.
His plans for just the next six or so years include extending renewable energy solutions, sending humans to Mars, expanding artificial intelligence capabilities and improving the human brain, to name a few, according to Futurism.
So how can you adopt a longtermism approach yourself?
Be Optimistic
Longtermism is an inherently optimistic approach, according to the Harvard Business Review, which also pointed out that there are financial benefits associated with optimism.
Certainly the most successful entrepreneurs, innovators and creators have to maintain such an attitude to take on the kinds of ventures that lead to big successes.
Writer Kelly Main at Inc. suggested that optimism allows us to view the future differently and make decisions from a more hopeful place. She called Musk’s approach a “future-forward mindset” and suggested the billionaire Warren Buffett takes a similar approach.
Plan For the Future
Perhaps the obvious sounding bit of advice is that to become a longtermist you should think about the future, and plan for it too. Thus, whatever financial and other choices you make today, they should be sustainable, thoughtful and contribute something positive to the future.
In other words, longtermism is the opposite of instant gratification, and it requires patience and empathy for people you will never know.
Main wrote, “[I]n business, focusing solely on the pursuit of short-term wins is often a good way to damage long-term success… it often leads to losing sight of overarching goals and cutting corners.”
Take a Longer Term Approach to Investing
If you’re starting or running a business, investing your money or even building a side hustle, Main recommended that to keep with longtermism’s philosophy would mean, “it has to be built as if time is limitless.”
Sometimes this means starting something you may personally never finish, or which you may hand off to others, like a family business. Musk’s goals of a society that runs entirely on clean energy, or a happy society living on Mars, are far off goals he might not live to see. But he still goes after them with the idea that they will one day benefit others.
Main wrote of Musk, “With a longtermist philosophy, his view of time isn’t limited to his own generation.”
Taking a longtermist approach to life may lead to investing resources (such as money, time and energy) into things that will come to fruition for a greater number of people than just ourselves.
Maybe this means investing in sustainable energy in your own home or in your investment portfolio. Maybe it means setting up a scholarship fund at a local school for kids who want to pursue STEM subjects.
At the very least, as MacAskill wrote, “It means thinking about the challenges we might face in our lifetimes that could impact civilisation’s whole trajectory.”
When you look at Musk’s success, his future-oriented view only seems to have worked both for his personal success and potentially for the future.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 3 Ways Elon Musk’s ‘Longtermism’ Can Help You Achieve Financial Success
