In one definition of the phrase it describes a long term strategy. The root of this could be found in the game of golf or perhaps in football (played as an American sport). To be able to hit or throw long as opposed to the shorter drives.
To play said long game requires a unique quality in an individual. Some may call it vision. Or foresight. The ability to play the long game or be in it for the long game is often not just being a visionary but to execute on that vision to make it reality.
There are individuals in all walks of life that one could think had that. Scientists and polyglots like Da Vinci or Ben Franklin who invented and were architects of amazing art and public policy respectively to Gandhi and Mandela who could envision a world free of colonial imperialism through non violence to recent barons like John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie who while amassing tremendous wealth also gave us modern industry and were linchpins for the industrial revolution. Both gave away a large part of their wealth and the world is better for it.
Today the hotshots or people of unusual vision are celebrated constantly in media and are due in part to the tech they helped create household names and role models that younger people aspire to be. Many though to me seem to be good at financial engineering of some sort rather than build something tangible and long lasting.
While software and hardware companies like Microsoft and Apple have brought affordable and intuitive computing to the masses and their founders and erstwhile CEOs in the form of Gates and Jobs are heroes the ongoing leadership does not necessarily reflect anything amazing and visionary except being good at administration and running a conglomerate with thousands of employees while keeping wall street happy.
Then there is another bunch of people who run large banks that recently had to be bailed by tax payer dollars but their CEOs while making once in a while flashy commentary are also considered thought leaders. Considered visionary by some. Are they?
Some like Amazon and Tesla do create game changing tech and in that exhibit rare insight into people's behavior. One could argue they also influence it to some extent but require investors in their enterprise to have tremendous patience in finding out when they may yield a profit.
They are defined in today's media by some as playing the long game.
As an avid buyer of their wares, or a participant in their story by way of owning some stock or simply being an academic ombudsman of any game the true meaning of a visionary perhaps is in the (eye) balls of the beholder.
To play said long game requires a unique quality in an individual. Some may call it vision. Or foresight. The ability to play the long game or be in it for the long game is often not just being a visionary but to execute on that vision to make it reality.
There are individuals in all walks of life that one could think had that. Scientists and polyglots like Da Vinci or Ben Franklin who invented and were architects of amazing art and public policy respectively to Gandhi and Mandela who could envision a world free of colonial imperialism through non violence to recent barons like John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie who while amassing tremendous wealth also gave us modern industry and were linchpins for the industrial revolution. Both gave away a large part of their wealth and the world is better for it.
Today the hotshots or people of unusual vision are celebrated constantly in media and are due in part to the tech they helped create household names and role models that younger people aspire to be. Many though to me seem to be good at financial engineering of some sort rather than build something tangible and long lasting.
While software and hardware companies like Microsoft and Apple have brought affordable and intuitive computing to the masses and their founders and erstwhile CEOs in the form of Gates and Jobs are heroes the ongoing leadership does not necessarily reflect anything amazing and visionary except being good at administration and running a conglomerate with thousands of employees while keeping wall street happy.
Then there is another bunch of people who run large banks that recently had to be bailed by tax payer dollars but their CEOs while making once in a while flashy commentary are also considered thought leaders. Considered visionary by some. Are they?
Some like Amazon and Tesla do create game changing tech and in that exhibit rare insight into people's behavior. One could argue they also influence it to some extent but require investors in their enterprise to have tremendous patience in finding out when they may yield a profit.
They are defined in today's media by some as playing the long game.
As an avid buyer of their wares, or a participant in their story by way of owning some stock or simply being an academic ombudsman of any game the true meaning of a visionary perhaps is in the (eye) balls of the beholder.
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