No, you're not "on the hook". You're definitely motivated to increase profits - most senior leadership's compensation will be heavily equity weighted, and net profit growth tends to result in share price growth - but there's no hard rule saying they have to purse short term profits at all costs. They might be pressured to by shareholders but they're not obligated to.

Consider companies like Amazon, Tesla, who (initially, for many years) prioritised long term growth over short term profits. Look at how long they lost money for. You do need a CEO who actually has some vision.