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
Look down on your machine and yourself within it from the higher level.
Higher-level thinking isn't something that's done by higher-level beings. It's simply seeing things from the top down. Think of it as looking at a photo of yourself and the world around you from outer space. From that vantage, you can see the relationships between the continents, countries, and seas. Then you can get more granular, by zooming into a closer-up view of your country, your city, your neighborhood, and finally your immediate environment. Having that macro perspective gives you much more insight than you'd get if you simply looked around your house through your own eyes.
Work Principle
- Manage as Someone Operating a Machine to Achieve a Goal
Look down on your machine and yourself within it from the higher level.
- Constantly compare your outcomes to your goals.
- Understand that a great manager is essentially an organizational engineer.
- Build great metrics.
- Beware of paying too much attention to what is coming at you and not enough attention to your machine.
- Make sure your people understand their roles in the machine and who decides what.
- Don't get distracted by shiny objects.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
