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
Don't believe everything you hear.
Opinions are a dime a dozen and nearly everyone will share theirs with you. Many will state them as if they are facts. Don't mistake opinions for facts.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
Is there not inherent bias in deciding who the "three most believable people" are?
We all have biases which is why we need the good triangulation and probing from smart people who are willing to disagree with us. Of course there is the risk that one can not know how to distinguish smart people from dumb people. In my Principles I give suggestions of how to make that distinction and I don’t have the space to do it here so I suggest you look there for it.
What do you think about the Principle "Don't Believe Everything You Hear" relative to the launch of the book, The Fund by Rob Copeland, about your tenure at Bridgewater?
You're right. When I think of these principles of the day, I think about what principle suits what I'm seeing. I see the book and the articles about it so I naturally ask myself what this is “another one of” and what are the good principles for dealing with these. I think a relevant principle is "Don't believe that you read." I naturally see most things as "another one of those" so I see the book as "another one of those"—I.e., another tabloid book that mixes fact and fiction to sell salacious, gossip. We have seen them repeatedly so there's not much that unique other that it's about me and Bridgewater. It's a reality and the relevant principles for me for handling such things are 1) Know that what matters is reality, 2) people will make up critical stories and some people will even be influenced by them but the people who matter know me and the other people who choose to dislike me because of these made up stories don't matter, and 3) don't have your attention taken away from the people and things that don't matter.
What is the best way to deal with highly opiniated people?
Do it in a straight forward and open-minded way. Tell them that you think that they are being overly opinionated when you think they are being that way and tell them that you are open-minded to be convinced that you’re wrong. Ask them what they think about that and, if they disagree, suggest that you mutually agree on a judge to plead your cases to in order to resolve your disagreement.
Life Principle
- Learn How to Make Decisions Effectively
- Synthesize the situation at hand.
- Don't believe everything you hear.
- Synthesize the situation at hand.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
