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
Establish clear metrics to make certain that you are following your plan.
Ideally, someone other than you should be objectively measuring and reporting on your progress. If you're not hitting your targets, that's another problem that needs to be diagnosed and solved. There are many successful, creative people who aren't good at execution. They succeed because they forge symbiotic relationships with highly reliable task-doers.
That's all there is to it!
Remember that all 5 Steps proceed from your values. Your values determine what you want, i.e., your goals. Also keep in mind that the 5 Steps are iterative. When you complete one step, you will have acquired information that will most likely lead you to modify the other steps. When you've completed all five, you'll start again with a new goal. If the process is working, your goals will change more slowly than your designs, which will change more slowly than your tasks.
One last important point: You will need to synthesize and shape well. The first three steps--setting goals, identifying problems, and then diagnosing them--are synthesizing (by which I mean knowing where you want to go and what's really going on). Designing solutions and making sure that the designs are implemented are shaping.
Life Principle
- Use the 5-Step Process to Get What You Want Out of Life
- Push through to completion.
- Establish clear metrics to make certain that you are following your plan.
- Push through to completion.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
