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.
Life Principle
Be an imperfectionist.
Perfectionists spend too much time on little differences at the margins at the expense of the important things. There are typically just five to ten important factors to consider when making a decision. It is important to understand these really well, though the marginal gains of studying even the important things past a certain point are limited.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
I have always struggled with perfectionism and overcoming it has made my life better.
Pass your story along to help others.
How do you know if the factors are important to making the decision?
Through common sense and trial and error.
I disagree as imperfection in work shows a lack of commitment and dedication and while perfection is out of reach, we should work towards it and not away from it.
Thx, I think that being willing to produce imperfection allows experimentation which leads to learning which produces better results. Also, unlike excellence, perfection is unobtainable and will take you past the point of diminishing returns which leads to wasted time that stands in the way of accomplishing more. That’s why “perfection is the enemy of good”. If we disagree about that, that’s ok.
If we did not have perfectionists e.g. Michelin chefs and Ferrari engineers we would probably be a far poorer civilization.
Everyone I knew who produced mind-blowing great results knew the difference between what was great and what was perfect, whereas those who could only accept perfection didn’t accomplish much because they over-pursued the unattainable.
Life Principle
- Learn How to Make Decisions Effectively
- Synthesize the situation through time.
- Be an imperfectionist.
- Synthesize the situation through time.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
