How do you balance short term windfalls with long term projects? It is easy to make lots of money, the hard part is keeping the income coming in.

Judging by the articles I’ve read in Harvard Business Review these are problems that every CEO faces. The stock market rewards short term performance but what is the cost to the long term survival of the company? Just the same, can a company that invests in markets that may never materialize really stay on top? It appears the correct answer is that both must be balanced.

Example: You have an entertainment website; do you triple your daily revenue by loading it up with flashy ads and pop-unders at the cost of growth, or hold off in the ads for the benefit of returning visitors?

I think successful long term planning requires not only discipline (money today) but long term strategy. And luck helps too.