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.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
When establishing clear metrics to ensure you’re following your plan, isn’t it better to focus on trends rather than a defined target—since consistently improving your metrics year over year can be more meaningful than hitting an arbitrary growth rate or profit number?
Certainly
When you’re the boss and you’ve established clear metrics to make sure you’re following your plan, who’s actually measuring and reporting on your progress—and if it’s your employees, can they really be objective, or are they just telling you what they think you want to hear, and how do you deal with that?
I always made myself report to others and always be willing to openly be probed by others and let the population decide how I am measuring up. To help them evaluate me, I had virtually all my meetings taped and made available for everyone to see and assess. I do that in a way that I describe in Principles. This was invaluable in helping me be accountable to others and to build trust in others.
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
