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

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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