Don't Be So Short Term

David Swensen walks into the office every day embodying Yale’s perpetual time horizon. The way he instills and reinforces that mindset is one of his many unique skills. Shortly after I left Yale and had a summer job at Brahman Capital, I was taking in a ball game in the old Shea Stadium with Yale’s longtime real estate star Alan Forman. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but I distinctly remember Alan responding to a concern I had a few years away with one of the office's oft-repeated cliches, "Don’t be so short term.” At that moment, I realized how quickly and easily I lost sight of that all-important lesson, and I made a mental note to never forget it.