03-31-2026LEADERSHIP NOW

I interviewed the CEOs of Reddit, Colgate-Palmolive, and 6 other top companies about leading for the long run. Here’s what they said

How do you focus on lasting success in an era when the the pressure to show instant results is relentless?

[Photos: NASA/Brandon Hancock, chhaifunnahar/Adobe Stock, Bettmann/Getty Images]

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”

– President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Most leaders will tell you they play the long game, and it is one of those things that sounds right and costs nothing to say. What is harder, rarer, and worth talking about is what underpins their conviction.

Artemis II is a 50-year case study in exactly that. On April 1, four astronauts will board the Orion spacecraft and fly around the Moon in the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. The mission did not survive nine administrations on belief alone. It survived because enough people, across enough leadership transitions, kept building the structural conditions for it to continue even when the spotlight dimmed. Belief was necessary, but it was not sufficient. Tenacity kept it going.

I have been thinking about that distinction a lot lately, because the bets leaders are being asked to carry right now are genuinely long and genuinely uncertain. The timelines are not quarterly, the outcomes are not guaranteed, and the pressure to show results, or pivot, or at least announce something, is relentless.

The question I wanted to ask today’s leaders was not whether they have conviction, but what conviction looks like in practice when it is expensive and the outcome is uncertain and the easier path is right there in front of you. So I interviewed eight of them.* Here’s what they said:

Noel Wallace, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Colgate-Palmolive

“For over two centuries, we have been dedicated to oral care, and I’m incredibly proud that our Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program, which we launched in 1991, has now reached over 2 billion children and their families globally. By pairing our world-class science with this heartfelt mission, we are truly fulfilling our purpose to reimagine a healthier future for every family we touch, and that is a bet that has only gotten more meaningful with time.”

John Summit's rise from accountant to DJ

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