Wisdom From Ray Dalio, One of The Worlds Greatest Investors

I have spent the last few days carefully reading and dissecting the self-published book “Principals ” by Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio operates the largest hedge fund in the world and has a net worth approaching $6 Billion. Principals is one of the best books on management and self-help I have come in contact with. Dalio summarizes the book in the following manner, “What is written here is my most fundamental life principles, my approach to getting what I want, and my “management principles,” which are based on those foundations. Taken together, these principles are meant to paint a picture of a process for the systematic pursuit of truth and excellence and for the rewards that accompany this pursuit.

There is a tremendous amount of wisdom in this book. To get the full benefit one has to read it very slowly with pen in hand for annotations. It’s also necessary to suspend your ego and be willing to consider a viewpoint that may be counter to your long held beliefs. One small part I would like to discuss is Chapter 3, “The 5 step process for getting what a person wants”. This chapter provides a clear and powerful template for achieving a goal. Dalio’s steps are unique from what most self help gurus will profess. His process requires you to objectively examine and address the weaknesses of not only the goal but also of those that are in charge of implementing the goal. Everyone of us has weaknesses that we choose to put on the shelf and assume that it won’t affect the implementation of the goal. However, Dalio correctly understands that these inherent weaknesses in the organization or ourselves are what bring about failure. Not accepting weaknesses is not accepting reality. Think about a goal or plan that you have not accomplished. Is it because there is an inherent weakness with you or the company that everyone refuses to accept? For instance do you have a brilliant business plan faltering because you are not a type A person needed to carry out the execution? Is your ego preventing you from hiring a detailed oriented person to help you implement the plan? Or are you a type A person that has no interest in creating a flexible and creative organization that is needed to make quick decisions without you? Over the past few years I have come to accept that it may be a fallacy to try and fix our own personal weaknesses and instead we should focus on our strengths and get outside help for pockets of weakness. For many people this is hard medicine to swallow at first and most never do. I believe Dalios template may be a first solid step for people to address the problems of self-sabotage and goal failures.

I plan to post more comments in the future about the book. Here is the link to the PDF Principles. Print it out and slowly begin to read. Enjoy and let me know what you think as you read the book.