Member-only story
Why Warren Buffett Said, “Really Successful People Say No To Almost Everything”
Extreme productivity is saying no to 1001 things

Billionaire Warren Buffett spends 80% of his time reading and thinking.
“You could hardly find a partnership in which two people settle on reading more hours of the day than in ours,” says Charlie Munger, Buffett’s business partner.
Blocking off time for your priorities is the only way to make real progress.
Warren Buffet has taken saying no to a whole new level. He barely talks to the media. He doesn’t attend business events. And he’s not a fan of interviews.
He once said:
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything,”
Success has a lot to do with what you don’t do.
Highly successful people don’t spend their finite time on 1001 things. They say no to almost everything that stands in their way.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully,” Steve Jobs once said at an Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
Life can quickly feel like you’re stretched too thin when you commit to many time-intensive tasks or take on too many things at a time.
So how do you keep up, get things done and make progress in almost all areas of your life? The answer? Saying no. It’s one of the hardest things to do.
We all have too many things on our plate.
More often than not, we feel like we’re living fast and dying slowly because it seems like we just can’t get everything done.
Many people don’t know where to start, so they say yes to every opportunity that comes their way. But this can lead to a feeling of overwhelm and stagnation.
Saying no is the key to getting more done and having a life outside of work. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive but saying no…