What do you, me, Warren Buffet, and his pilot have in common?

Success. Each one of us; you, me, Buffett, his pilot all want success. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we each hunger for success. So, what separates the exceptionally successful people from the rest of us?

Check out this story about Warren Buffet and his long-time pilot then you decide.

Mike Flint was Buffett's personal airplane pilot for 10 years. Flint had flown for 4 different U.S. Presidents before, so he was pretty good at flying. Yet he still felt as though he hadn't achieved all of the career and life goals that he wanted to.

So one day Buffett jokingly says to Flint: "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."

So Flint asks Buffett for his help, and Buffett tells him to go through this 3-step exercise.

Here's how it works (you can play along at home, too)…

STEP 1
Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 goals - the things that came to mind when he thought of success in his career and life. So, Flint took some time and wrote them down.

STEP 2
Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals - the things that were most important to him and that he wanted more than anything else in the world.

This was a lot harder for Flint, since everything on his list was important to him (after all, that's why he wrote them down). But Warren insisted that he could only pick five, so after some time and thought, he made five circles.

"Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?" Warren asked. Steve confidently replied that they were.

STEP 3
At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled were List A and the 20 items he hadn't circled were List B.

Warren now asked Flint when he planned to get to work on these top 5 goals and what his approach would be.

Flint explained, "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."

Flint went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him, when he expected to complete each item…

And that's when Buffett asked him about the second list, "And what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn't circle? What is your plan for completing those?"

Flint replied, "Well the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 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 aren't as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort."

To which Buffett replied:

"No. You've got it wrong, Mike. 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."

Semper Fi
Gunny Mike
zilchworks.com