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 give orders and try to be followed; try to be understood and to understand others by getting in sync.
If you want to be followed, either for egotistical reasons or because you believe it more expedient to operate that way, you will pay a heavy price in the long run. When you are the only one thinking, the results will suffer.
Authoritarian managers don't develop their subordinates, which means those who report to them stay dependent. This hurts everyone in the long run. If you give too many orders, people will likely resent them, and when you aren't looking, defy them. The greatest influence you can have over intelligent people--and the greatest influence they will have on you--comes from constantly getting in sync about what is true and what is best so that you all want the same things.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
Is this true for other cultures especially the global south where hierarchy is King?
All cultures have different approaches to having disagreement and having ways for getting past them to get to the best answers Some systems are better than others. The system I described worked very well and is very logical. In evolving, people should consider what should be accepted and what should be rejected, make that decision without bias and pick the best path forward. Of course people have deeply ingrained cultural biases. It seems like the best thing to do, if possible, is to minimize biases and pick what’s best, experiment with it and evolve.
How do you get into sync and still be a critical thinker?
Two independent thinkers can agree on what’s true and what to do about it. It is of course desirable to do that. I’m not saying that everyone can do that.
Work Principle
- Manage as Someone Operating a Machine to Achieve a Goal
- Know that great leadership is generally not what it's made out to be.
- Don't give orders and try to be followed; try to be understood and to understand others by getting in sync.
- Know that great leadership is generally not what it's made out to be.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
