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
Avoid Monday morning quarterbacking.
Evaluate the merits of a past decision based not on what you know now but only on what you could have reasonably known at the time the decision was made. Every decision has pros and cons; you can't evaluate choices in retrospect without the appropriate context. Do this by asking yourself, "What should a quality person have known and done in that situation?" Also, have a deep understanding of the person who made the decision (how they think, the type of person they are, whether they learned from the situation, and so on).
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
Do you think that the coronavirus will be different from past epidemics that didn't cause economies to crash?
I, and all the experts I speak with, don’t know how far the coronavirus will spread. The range of possibilities being discussed goes from modest to be like the Spanish flu which was devastating. Monetary policy and fiscal policy can help provide enough money to avoid debt problems and other financial squeezes but it won’t make up for the production that is lost due to the inability to produce. There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of debt in the system which makes investors inclined to shift some of their risky assets into safe assets which is what is now driving the markets.
Work Principle
- Diagnose Problems to Get at Their Root Causes
- To diagnose well, ask the following questions:
- Avoid Monday morning quarterbacking.
- 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
