Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life.
Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, cites principles as his key to success.
In 1975, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Over forty years later, Bridgewater has grown into the largest hedge fund in the world and the fifth most important private company in the United States (according to Fortune magazine), and Dalio himself has been named to TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way Dalio discovered unique principles that have led to his and Bridgewater’s unique success. It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio, that he believes are the reason behind whatever success he has had. He is now at a stage in his life that he wants to pass these principles along to others for them to judge for themselves and to do whatever they want with them.
Work Principle
Don't expect people to recognize and compensate for their own blind spots.
I constantly see people form wrong opinions and make bad decisions, even though they've made the same kinds of mistakes before--and even though they know that doing so is illogical and harmful. I used to think that they would avoid these pitfalls when they became aware of their blind spots, but typically that's not the case. Only very rarely do I hear someone recuse himself from offering an opinion because they aren't capable of forming a good one in a particular area. Don't bet on people to save themselves; proactively guardrail them or, better yet, put them in roles in which it's impossible for them to make the types of decisions they shouldn't make.
Work Principle
- Design Improvements to Your Machine to Get Around Your Problems
- Create guardrails when needed—and remember it's better not to guardrail at all.
- Don't expect people to recognize and compensate for their own blind spots.
- Create guardrails when needed—and remember it's better not to guardrail at all.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
