Ep 494 | The Secret to Ruthless Focus: Buffett’s 5/25 Rule

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Most of us struggle with too many priorities, especially if you're a high-achieving entrepreneur. We struggle with way too many priorities. We try to do everything, but in the end, we don't accomplish nearly as much as we should. Warren Buffett, one of our favorite individuals to study here at No Days Off, he once shared a really simple rule with his pilot, and that rule changed the way his pilot thought about success. It's called the, the 5/25 rule, and today I want to break it down for our No Days Off Nation because I think it's very, very valuable insight, something that we can apply in our respective worlds. So Mike Flint was Warren's pilot, and Mike had been Warren's personal pilot for over a decade. He was flying him around on business trips and meetings and personal travel. And over the years, because, you know, the time spent together, the two had built a pretty close professional relationship. One day, Mike approached Warren for some career advice. He said to Warren that despite his success as a pilot, he had several long-term aspirations, and he wasn't really sure how to prioritize these aspirations. He wanted to ensure that he was making the right career moves for his, for his business, for his family, And so he went to Warren, who, you know, is a pretty accomplished guy himself, and said, what do I do? Well, Warren, who's known for his ability to simplify complex problems, decided to walk Flint through an exercise to clarify or help Flint clarify his real priorities. So Warren asks Mike Flint, he asks him this first question, he says, Mike, what do you want? He asked Mike to write down his 25, his top 25 career goals. Write down all 25. I'm sure there's some more, but he said, give me 25 career goals, the things that you, Mike, really want to achieve in your lifetime. Mike took his time and he listed out a variety of different ambitions that he had, ranging from professional growth to personal development They were all across the spectrum of his life. And he came back to Warren with this list of 25 career goals. Once he was done and brought it to— brought this list to Warren, Warren then instructs him to go through the list carefully and circle the 5 most important goals. The 5 most. Now, Mike hesitated because so many of these goals were important to him. But he took some time and he eventually narrowed that list down to his 5 most crucial ambitions. So from the 25 career goals, he identified the, the top 5, called the top 20%. Warren then said to Mike, we're gonna make it, we're gonna make 2 lists. It's not gonna be easy to make these 2 lists, right? But we've got these lists, right? You've got list number 1 which is going to contain your top 5 priorities, and list number 2, that's everything else. Clear instructions, right? He took 5 and put them on one list. He took the remaining 20 and put them on the other list. This is where it got complicated though. Flint then said, Mike Flint then said, okay, Warren, so I'll focus on my top 5. This is what his assumption was, that he'll focus on his top 5 and then he'll work on the other 20 whenever he has some extra time. But Warren turned around and immediately stopped him, and he said something to the effect of, no, Mike, I don't think you get it. Everything you didn't circle just became your avoid it at all costs list. Avoid it at all costs list. No matter what, these things on this list of 20, they get no attention from you until you've succeeded with your top 5. Mike was, was pretty stunned. He had assumed that all of his goals deserved some level of focus, and so Warren telling him otherwise was a little surprising. Again, he said, hey, come to me with your 25 career goals, which I'm going to guess had Mike Flynn had given a lot of thought to. It was emotional. It was probably not all that easy to narrow it down to 25 goals, and, you know, throughout, throughout his business career and his life. And then he said, not only do you need to give me the 25, I need to know the 5 that are the most important. And then put these 2 on lists. List of 5 most important, list of 20 that are of lesser importance but still incredibly important to Mike, important enough to go on his 25 career goals. And then he says, to Mike's surprise, Warren says to Mike, this list of 5 is where you spend all your time and this list of 20, you avoid these things at all costs. And until you knock out these 5, you don't even glance at the 20. So what's the lesson here? The lesson is that success isn't just about knowing what to do. It's also incredibly important to know what not to do. And the real danger may not be in failure necessarily, it's in distraction. The goals that seem important but not urgent are often the ones that derail your true progress. Let me say that again. The goals that seem important but not urgent are often the ones that derail your true progress. The real danger isn't in failure, it's in distraction. The difference between good and great, ultimately, at least according to Warren Buffett, is going to come down to focus. And I think we could all agree on that. So, let's talk about you. What are the 25 things you're working on right now? What are your, what are your biggest dreams? What are your biggest priorities? Maybe take some time today to make your list of 25. Once you do that, no surprise here, I'm going to challenge you to pick only 5. What are the 5 most important? What would they be? More importantly, what would you, what would you eliminate from that list of 5, right? So you've got 25, you got to narrow it down to 5. Maybe I shouldn't ask you what's the most important 5. What 20 are you eliminating? You've got to cut out the important but non-essential goals. This is critical. So write down your 25 goals, circle your top 5, move the other 20 to your do not touch list. And then commit to saying no to everything outside your top 5 until you achieve them. I think it's a pretty powerful approach. And again, it comes back to focus. So many of us lack the focus necessary to get the success that we desire. The secret to success isn't just what you say yes to, it's what you have the discipline to say no to. So in conclusion, remember, over the next day or so, write those 25 goals down and follow, follow Warren Buffett's 5/25 method. I promise you this one shift will change how you think about success, maybe forever. One last note, if this resonates, if this message resonates with you, I want you to share this episode with someone who you think needs a bit more focus in their life. Just share it. Just put it out there. I mean, this is Warren's lesson. This isn't Brian's lesson. I think we should be sharing more of what Warren's put out to the world. And so, I think this is so powerful. You should do right by somebody else and share this episode with someone who you think needs a bit more focus, which side note, I think is all of us. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.