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.