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 confuse the quality of someone's circumstances with the quality of their approach to dealing with the circumstances.
One can be good and the other can be bad, and it's easy to confuse which is which. Such confusion is especially common in organizations that are doing new things and evolving fast but haven't yet gotten the kinks out.
I have always described Bridgewater as being "terrible and terrific at the same time." For nearly forty years, we have consistently produced extraordinary results while struggling with lots of problems. It is easy to look at messy circumstances, think things must be terrible, and get frustrated. But the real challenge is to look at the long-term successes these messy circumstances have produced and understand how essential they are to the evolutionary process of innovation.
Work Principle
- Diagnose Problems to Get at Their Root Causes
- To diagnose well, ask the following questions:
- Don't confuse the quality of someone's circumstances with the quality of their approach to dealing with the circumstances.
- To diagnose well, ask the following questions:
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
