To earn solid gains on the stock market, it is best to approach the exercise as a marathon instead of a sprint. Sure, investors can sometimes see shares of the companies they own skyrocket in a short period like six months. But more often than not, banking on short-term gains is an impossible strategy to pull off consistently.

On the other hand -- over let's say a decade -- great stocks tend to deliver outsized returns almost without fail. With that as a backdrop, let's look at two companies whose shares are worth holding onto through the next decade and beyond: Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) and Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC). Let's dig in.

Intuitive Surgical is at the top of an industry that looks destined to continue growing. Thanks to its da Vinci system, the company is the robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) market leader, helping physicians perform minimally invasive surgeries that improve patient outcomes. How so? Instead of cutting open patients to access internal organs that need to be operated on, minimally invasive surgeries rely on small incisions and tiny, highly versatile instruments to get the job done.

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Source Fool.com