The story of Warren Buffett advising his longtime personal pilot Mike Flint to list 25 career goals, circle 5 most important, then treat the remaining 20 as an 'avoid-at-all-cost list' to maintain laser focus on priorities.
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The 5/25 Rule emerged from a conversation between Warren Buffett and his longtime personal pilot, Mike Flint. The story has become legendary in productivity circles, though Buffett himself has expressed skepticism about its attribution.
According to the widely-shared account:
Buffett encouraged Flint to write down his top 25 career goals. This forced Flint to think comprehensively about his professional aspirations.
Once the list was complete, Buffett instructed Flint to circle the five most important goals. These should be the goals that truly spoke to him, the ones that would make the biggest difference in his life and career.
Flint assumed he would work on the circled five immediately and get to the other 20 eventually. But Buffett had a different instruction:
"Everything you didn't circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you've succeeded with your top 5."
The genius of the method isn't in the top 5 goals — it's in treating the remaining 20 as things to avoid:
Those 20 goals aren't bad. They're actually good, interesting, and worthy. That's what makes them dangerous. They're attractive enough to steal time and energy from your true priorities without being important enough to matter.
Success isn't threatened by obviously bad ideas. It's threatened by pretty good ideas that aren't great.
Recent investigations suggest:
Regardless of the story's authenticity, it captures Buffett's documented beliefs:
"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."
In business and life, Buffett advocates for concentrated bets on your best opportunities rather than spreading resources thin.
The method is simple but not easy:
Whether Buffett actually gave this advice to his pilot or not, the story persists because it captures a profound truth: Success requires not just choosing what to focus on, but actively avoiding attractive alternatives.