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
Don't feel bad about your mistakes or those of others. Love them!
People typically feel bad about their mistakes because they think in a shortsighted way about the bad outcome and not about the evolutionary process of which mistakes are an integral part. I once had a ski instructor who had also given lessons to Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time. Jordan, he told me, reveled in his mistakes, seeing each of them as an opportunity to improve. He understood that mistakes are like those little puzzles that, when you solve them, give you a gem. Every mistake that you make and learn from will save you from thousands of similar mistakes in the future.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
If I think it's a weakness to make a lot of mistakes, how can I feel good and not lose confidence for pursuing my goals when I do make mistakes?
Making a lot of mistakes just means you haven’t yet learned how to do the thing you’re trying to do. When that is the case consider whether you should keep trying to learn or should instead work with someone who is strong where you are weak. I any case, get and appreciate the message that you’re not good at it and don’t stubbornly do the thing you’re not good at and keep failing.
How do you go about seeing the bigger picture, moving on and learning from mistakes?
1) I remind myself of this principle and the principle of pain+reflection=progress when I encounter painful failure, 2) I get in the habit of doing it so it comes more naturally, and 3) I meditate which helps give me the equanimity that helps me see it that way.
Work Principle
- Create a Culture in Which It Is Okay to Make Mistakes and Unacceptable Not to Learn from Them
- Recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the evolutionary process.
- Don't feel bad about your mistakes or those of others. Love them!
- Recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the evolutionary process.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
