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
Ask yourself: "Who should do what differently?"
I often hear people complaining about a particular outcome without attempting to understand the machine that caused it. In many cases, these complaints come from people who are seeing the cons of some decision but not the pros and don't know how the Responsible Party weighed them to come to a decision. Since all outcomes ultimately come from people and designs, asking yourself "Who should do what differently?" will point you in the direction of the kind of understanding that you need to actually change outcomes in the future (versus just chirping about them).
Work Principle
- Diagnose Problems to Get at Their Root Causes
- To diagnose well, ask the following questions:
- Ask yourself: "Who should do what differently?"
- 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
