[Spooky23]

The S&P 500 is a list. 80+% of the companies on that list when it started are no longer on it.

Betting on business in general over long time periods tends to be a winning proposition. Betting on an individual company tends to be less of a winner in general.

[WalterBright]

Businesses do tend to fail eventually. Their business model become obsolete, the market for their product fades away, they strangle themselves with bureaucracy, they zig instead of zag. That isn't short-term-itis.

But you cannot grow a small company into a large one by concentrating on short term profits. The S&P 500 is composed of 500 large companies.

Imagine if you were selling MSFT short every quarter since they IPO'd in the '80s.