Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Strategy: How to prioritize your goals
Nutshell:
Focus on a limited number of goals
Warren Buffett, an
investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has built a fortune of wealth—a net
worth close to $89.2 billion. Warren Buffett uses highly effective strategies that
help him to get more done in less time than most people achieve in a lifetime.
In a conversation between
Warren Buffett and his Pilot, Buffett recommended a strategy to help prioritization that always stuck with me. It’s simple, clean, and helps get to the heart of what you should be working on.
Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Strategy
The story started when
Warren Buffett has a conversation with his private jet pilot, Mike Flint Who had piloted for Buffett for 10 years. Flint was a successful man in his field. Buffett said to him, “The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be
out, going after more of your goals and dreams.”
Buffett then walked Flint
through a simple 4 step process to gain clarity on priorities and achieve goals.
Step 1: define your top 25 goals.
The first thing Warren
Buffett asked Flint to do was to list the most important career goals he wanted to achieve in his lifetime. These would total to 25 goals.
Flint spent some time and
came up with the 25 career
goals that he felt were most important to him.
Tip:
Take your time in this stage, it is the time to write down every goal you have in mind. What you most passionate about? What would you feel amazing to achieve? What keeps you up in the night?
What do you want to do right now?
Step 2: Draw a circle around your top 5 goals.
Once Flint compiled his
list of 25 career goals,
Buffett asked him to draw a circle around his top 5 most important goals. Then, Buffett
asked, “Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you.” Flint
replied, “Yes.”
Tip:
This is will be a
difficult stage because each goal sounds important for you, but hang on, don’t give up, go through the list and reflect. Elimination concept will help you,
start to eliminate goals that are good to have, do not actually fulfill your passion and desires, what is not really important for you now, and then start to focus on what is the most exciting and got the highest priority for you.
Step 3: Focus on Your Top 5 Goals.
After the brief discussion,
Flint said to Buffett, “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow.
Actually, no I’ll start tonight.”
Tip:
Those top 5 are now your to-do list, give your attention and focus on those 5 goals and only those! Do not move on to any other thing before you achieve those 5 goals.
Step 4: Avoid the 20 goals (avoid list)
Buffett replied, “but what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn’t circle? What is
your plan for completing those?” Flint replied swiftly, “Well the top five are my primary focus but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important, so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them
dedicated effort.”
After a moment of silence, Buffett looked straight into Flint’s eyes and said, “No. You’ve got it wrong Steve. Everything you didn’t circle just became you ‘avoid at all cost list’. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve
cussed with your top 5”
Tip:
Strictly consider the bottom 20 as your avoid list, even if you feel overwhelmed, struggling with progress, procrastinating, etc. don’t fall back on items 6-25. Even if they sound achievable.
If you reflect effectively on the 25 goals and select your top 5, then follow your decision and don’t allow your self-doubt to control you. When you think about those goals, ask yourself why? Is there something on your top 5 list you should be doing? Is there are obstacles shown up in the road to achievement? How would you deal with this? What the one step you can take now toward those top 5 goals?
Apply 5/25 Strategy on every aspect
The strategy does not
only apply to a career, but it also applies to every aspect of life. Whether it
is life goals, career goals, leadership goals,
etc. you can apply the 5/25 strategy for better focus and prioritization of
your everyday goals.
For Example:
Relationships
List down your relationship goals i.e.
spend more time with family, friends, the team at work, networking, etc., then
decide your top 5 goals
and focus on these only.
Business
List down your business goals i.e. to
launch your new startup idea, build your marketing strategy, fundraising, hire
more staff, etc. and focus only on the top 5 goals.
Tip:
Apply the same on all
life aspects and goals.
Say no to the Inessential
Time and energy are limited resources, wasting them in too many wish lists will lead you nowhere. I
emphasize “Saying no to the inessential goals) in my life coaching, executive coaching, and most importantly career and teenagers coaching sessions with my clients.
Stop spreading yourself thin by chasing too many goals at the same time. That makes you easily distracted and lose focus. Start to apply Warren Buffett’s 5/25 strategy is an effective tool that will help you prioritize your most important goals and achieve results in life.
I share the same strategy
with my client in life
coaching, executive
coaching, career
coaching and teenager
coaching during the sessions in Dubai and online in different other
cities. Use this simple strategy in everything such as short term goals, personal goals, yearly goals, health goals, education goals, etc.
Final thoughts:
Try this strategy today,
see how it will help you to effectively prioritize your goals and stay focused. Focus on what is really
important for you now and forget the rest.
Feel free to email me Coach@modelawer.com
if you need any support from my side or have any questions.
