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
Remember that decisions need to be made at the appropriate level, but they should also be consistent across levels.
For instance, if you want to have a healthy life, you shouldn’t have twelve sausage links and a beer every day for breakfast. In other words, you need to constantly connect and reconcile the data you’re gathering at different levels in order to draw a complete picture of what’s going on. Like synthesizing in general, some people are naturally better at this than others, but anyone can learn to do this to one degree or another. To do it well, it’s necessary to:
- Remember that multiple levels exist for all subjects.
- Be aware on what level you’re examining a given subject.
- Consciously navigate levels rather than see subjects as undifferentiated piles of facts that can be browsed randomly.
- Diagram the flow of your thought processes using the outline template shown here.
Life Principle
- Learn How to Make Decisions Effectively
- Navigate levels effectively.
- Remember that decisions need to be made at the appropriate level, but they should also be consistent across levels.
- Navigate levels effectively.
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
