Principles
Ray Dalio
Summary
What’s probably known as the business bible, this book written from the founder of Bridgewater Associates is a fantastic read. Although a bit long, Dalio teaches you about all of his lessons that got him to make Bridgewater into a 150 Billion dollar company. Highly recommend
Rating: 4/5
Notes
There’s always risk in everything you do, even a sure thing
Never be so arrogant to say something with 100% certainty
Have humility and radical open-mindedness to change and form new opinions
Life is about meaningful relationships and meaningful work (not money)
Making a few uncorrelated bets is better than making a single bet
Here is someone who achieved something beyond the normal achievements in life. Given his life to bigger than himself
Heroes experience big failure which tests if they have the resilience to come back better and stronger
Everything at the time seems really dramatic and up close but after time, it’s just a story
Life is about finding a current struggle because once you reach your goal, you’re still going to struggle
Understand the cause and effect of patterns important to you and learn how to deal with them
Dreams + reality + determination = a successful life
Be radically open minded and radically transparent
Look to nature to learn how reality works
Evolving is life’s greatest accomplishment and reward
Constant drive to learn and improve is what makes life enjoyable
Pain + reflection = progress
Go to the pain rather than avoid it
Weigh 2nd and 3rd order consequences
Own your outcomes
5 step process to success:
- Have clear goals
- Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of achieving those goals
- Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root cause
- Design plans that will get you around them
- Do what’s necessary to push through these designs through to results
Don’t avoid your problems because they may be weaknesses; tackle them head on
Execute your plan
Everyone has blind spots and eye barriers. Accept them and work around them
Don’t worry about looking good, worry about achieving your goal
Don’t agree with someone for the sake of it. Thoughtful disagreements
Open mindedly triangulate with smart people and have thoughtful disagreements
Be aware of your subconscious because it guides all your decisions
Relationships are more important than anything else
Never seize the first available option no matter how good it seems
Make your decisions as value calculations
Evolve or die
Don’t feel bad about mistakes, own them
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
