Principles. To achieve your goals, you must be a person of principle and discipline, especially when it comes to organizing your life and work methods with a clear plan in order to live in a complex society like this. Let's get to know the author of this book. His name is Ray Dalio. He is nicknamed the "Steve Jobs of investing." He is the most important person in Silicon Valley in this 21st century. He is very famous in the fields of finance and investment. And the book "Principles" that he wrote is also very famous, not losing to him.
The most successful achievement recognized in his life is his company that manages the world's largest hedge fund, which is Bridgewater Associates. Today, this hedge fund management company has investment capital of over 160 billion dollars, and his company still maintains its position as the largest and most profitable hedge fund management company in the world. Even though the world has faced several economic crises, his company has still been able to maintain its high profits.
Because of his success in the field of finance, Time magazine of the United States has rated Ray Dalio as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. If we talk about the reason he wrote this book, we have to go back to the early 1980s. At that time, he recorded some of his mistakes in the field of investment because the investment sector has very high risks, and he always encountered new problems that never seemed to end. Day by day, he only solved problems, sometimes the same old problems, and sometimes new problems that arose.
He sat down to sum up and summarize the problems he had encountered in the past, such as he noted the patterns of the stock market's ups and downs and found principles and techniques for investing in the stock market, etc. These principles are a mental aid that can help him analyze and prepare for the next investment.
The content in this book can really be applied by all of you in your daily lives. This book is divided into three important parts. Part one talks about the history of Ray Dalio's struggles. Part two talks about life principles, and part three talks about work principles. In this book, hundreds of principles are written down, and each principle is something that we encounter in our daily lives. Those principles are arranged in short and easy-to-understand sentences. Not to waste any more time, we come to the first part of this book. The first principle is about life principles. How can we see the world more clearly than before, know what is real, what is not real.
The second principle is the principle of work, how to accomplish work with discipline. The last part of the book will tell us how to become a great failure, learn from failure, and use it as a lesson to summarize principles for ourselves. Chapter 1, we look at life principles. The principles of life are many, but what is most important is that we can distinguish between wrong and right, and can see this world more broadly than before. To put it simply, it is to dare to accept the truth. Perhaps many people say that they are a person of principle and discipline. But in reality, it is not an easy thing that we can follow the principles we have set. We humans tend to value ourselves too highly. This is why we are easily confused about what is truth and what is assumption. For example, the investment guru Warren Buffett once said a very famous phrase: "When people are scared, I am greedy.
When people are greedy, I am scared." This principle sounds easy to understand. But those who have experience buying and selling stocks on the stock market really know that it is not an easy thing to see everyone panicking and selling their stocks, while you are the only one holding on to them. We cannot apply Warren Buffett's principle above. Because at that time, we do not know what is truth and what is not. Sometimes, when we see everyone selling their stocks, we might sell along with them. So, when facing problems or having to make important decisions, how can we ensure that we can make the most correct decision? Ray Dalio has summarized a formula for all of you, which is the 5-step process for achieving goals.
No matter what your goal is, you must go through these stages. The five stages are: set a goal, understand the problem, diagnose the problem, design a plan, and execute the plan. It's easy to say, but hard to do. Most people get stuck at the second step and can't move forward. They cannot understand the real problem, do not know what the root of the problem is, and even more, they cannot analyze the root of the problem. Why is that? Ray Dalio also thought about this point. He realized that this problem comes from two main reasons. First, people have "The Blind Spot." People have different perceptions of the same problem. Our mindset limits what we can see. We cannot make a judgment that is truly correct and comprehensive.
This is how people are. When there is a disagreement or our idea is not accepted by others, we will try to explain that we are right, without asking why they disagree. Could they have a better idea? It has reached the point where some people, just by someone slightly contradicting them, get angry with each other. Ray Dalio says the most pitiful thing is that people like to think that they are always right. They are not very willing to understand the ideas of others. Sometimes they know they are wrong, but they still do it. And when they get a result they don't like, they don't accept their mistake either. They always have reasons and always blame others. Why is that? Neuroscientists from a hospital have explained that this is due to the connection and the operating system of the brain. There is a part of the brain that specializes in finding our mistakes. It really wants to know where we are wrong, it likes to find the weaknesses in ourselves.
The purpose is to help us grow, to develop ourselves to be better. But another part of our brain is not happy with this cell. It has considered these suggestions and criticisms as an attack instead. So, they have to find every means to defend themselves, to counter the attack. To put it simply, within ourselves, there are two forces that are competing for the right to control our body. In the book "The Elephant and the Rider," a similar view is also raised. How can we ensure that you have a decision that is correct and logical, avoiding the blind spot?
The answer is very simple. First, you have to admit that you are a biased person. You are a person with weaknesses. Ray Dalio has met many top people in the world. He said that in this world, no one is perfect. But what makes those people the top people in the world is that they are people who have an open mind and accept criticism from others. And they know very well that they have weaknesses and blind spots. And they try to find ways to develop their weaknesses to be even better. Of course, making yourself think in this open-minded way is not easy. Ordinary people need up to 18 months to train themselves to be able to adapt to this new habit.
You can start with the small things around you. For example, you can exchange opinions with your friends, siblings, or family members. Discuss and analyze an idea together and learn to make a judgment on a problem to make the right decision. You will notice that discussing, debating, and expressing opinions like this can really help us get a lot of information and ideas from different people that one person alone cannot think of.
Besides being determined to be open-minded and accepting suggestions and criticisms from others, Ray Dalio has added one more point: we must learn to calculate the things we do every day and summarize them into a number or a clear conclusion. For example, if you ask someone how many minutes on average they spend on the road commuting from home to work each day, he will probably say, "About half an hour, or sometimes an hour. It's not fixed, it depends on the traffic on the road." There are very few people, or almost none at all, who have recorded the time they spend on the road and divided it to get an average figure to get an exact number. Knowing this information can really help you manage your daily time and add another level of quality to your life. These are all things that add value to all of you.
Having talked about life principles, we now come to talk about work principles. Talking about these two principles, they go in a parallel direction. It can be said that work principles are life principles applied in the work sector. At this point, the author emphasizes that work principles are more important than life principles. These important work principles have been derived from the experience of the author's company, Ray Dalio. His first work principle is to prioritize idea meritocracy. This means that when a company prepares a strategy or makes an important decision, it must choose the most logical and reasonable idea, without considering the source, position, or role of the person who came up with the idea. Ray Dalio believes that a company can grow big not because its founder is talented, and not by looking at its abundant resources.
But you have to see if that company has implemented the principle of prioritizing idea meritocracy. To get a good idea, of course, the first step is to let everyone express their own opinions. The next step is for everyone to give suggestions and ask each other questions. You might be thinking, with so many ideas, how do you know which one is good and which one is not? Encouraging everyone to express their ideas is just to get them to share their suggestions and their perspectives on our company. The right to make the final decision is in the hands of the expert. For example, we are in a meeting about a financial problem. The marketing department can express their opinion, and the human resources department can also express their opinion. But the right to decide which opinion to take, which one is more reasonable and feasible, only the finance department knows for sure.
You might ask, "If the right to make the final decision is still with the finance department, why call other departments to express their opinions? Isn't that just a waste of time?" This is because people have different understandings, strengths, and weaknesses. Of course, there will be different ideas. To get the best solution, we must gather all the ideas that are feasible, put them on the table to discuss. But not all companies can create this kind of work environment. How can you encourage the work team to express their opinions? This refers to the work principle of Ray Dalio.
When he was leading his company, one day after a meeting, he received an email from a junior staff member. I will read the content of that email to all of you. The email said, "Ray, you didn't do well in the meeting just now. It seemed like you were not prepared at all for this meeting. Everyone didn't understand what you were trying to say. You should prepare more before calling everyone to a meeting. Don't waste all of our time. If you need help, I can help you." Finally, that staff member added one more sentence: "If you don't believe me, go ask the people who attended the meeting today. Or come ask me directly." A subordinate talking so bluntly to a boss is not common in other companies. But in Ray's company, it happens frequently. And he never gets angry about these things. In his company, it doesn't matter if it's a senior or a junior staff, if there's a problem or an opinion, it can be raised at any time.
What makes his company different from others is that every meeting requires a voice recording. If someone is mentioned during the meeting and that person is not there, they have to send the recorded voice message to that person to listen, so they know what the work team has said about them. So, in the company Bridgewater of his, there are no secrets, no barriers between senior and junior staff. In fact, this way of working is also good. Often in the work sector, some people don't spend their time working with their whole heart. But sometimes, they spend a lot of time acting as if they are working hard. They have to spend a portion of their time on work and a portion of their time arranging their activities to look like a busy and hard-working person. They try to hide their weaknesses and their laziness. They show what is their strength and their good points. This is the work atmosphere in other places. But in Ray Dalio's company, you don't have to act like this. You have to be what you are.
There is no pressure at all. If you are tired from work, you can go to sleep. If you are hungry and want to eat something, you can go as you please. You don't have to pretend to look like you are working hard, but when the boss is not around, you are playing games or browsing Facebook. Doing this shows no integrity in work and no work efficiency. But in his company, the resignation rate is very high. Why? A company that is so free like this still has people resigning? This is because the discussions in the work team are too intense. Too much freedom, too loose, no rules, no boss, no subordinates, that's why one-third of the new employees cannot fit in with this kind of work environment. But Ray Dalio still sticks to his principles.
Those who can journey together must have the same work culture and vision. He values idea meritocracy, no matter whose idea it is. And that opinion or suggestion is judged only by the expert. This means everyone has the right to express their opinion. But whether to implement that opinion or not is up to the person who has the decision-making power in that matter. Above, we have talked about the life principles and work principles of Ray Dalio. Next, we will talk about ourselves. How can we create a principle for ourselves? In the beginning of this book, the author also wrote that whether his principles are useful to the reader or not depends on whether the reader can apply them effectively or not. What is important is not all those principles. It is the consideration and the thinking behind those principles that are important.
Only by understanding the mindset behind all those principles can you make a truly correct decision. In short, principles come from the results of application. Our many wrong and right decisions. It is like an internal code of conduct for ourselves that shows us what is wrong, what is right, what should be done, and what should not be done. Ray Dalio has a bad habit, which is he likes to make mistakes. He created an app called "Pain Button." This app of his was created to record the many mistakes of people and the lessons learned from those mistakes.
For example, he made a very big mistake in his life. This mistake happened during the 1980s. The unemployment rate in the United States at that time was rising sharply, which could lead the US into a severe economic crisis. Ray Dalio was very talented. He predicted this economic crisis in advance. TV stations and mass media invited him to participate as an honored guest to analyze the US economic crisis. He said that very soon, the United States will face a severe economic crisis and the stock market will crash. But as a result, it was not as he analyzed.
The stock market prices went up to the sky instead. Ray Dalio suffered a huge loss from his wrong analysis, almost losing everything, left with only his empty hands. But going through this mistake made him learn another new lesson, and later he wrote it into his principles. That is, he changed from "I think I am right" to "Why do I think I am right?" This made him a person with better analysis and decision-making skills. Understanding all these reasons is what made him receive so much fortune later on because of this. When the stock market crashes or there is an economic crisis, his hedge fund company still maintains a strong position and high profits. So Ray Dalio encourages all of you to be brave and dare to make mistakes. And write down the mistakes you have made on paper and the solutions you have found, and summarize them as lessons for yourself and others. Is failure the mother of success? Only if you are a person who knows how to fail.
He teaches us to become a "professional mistake maker." In reality, in our daily lives, we have made countless mistakes. Some mistakes wake us up, and other mistakes make us see new and better opportunities. But our brain has a short-term memory. This means that if you have an experience or a good idea, and you don't put it into practice or review it, you will surely forget it.
In this book, what struck me the most is what they say: when you face problems in life and work, don't just think about using emotions. You have to find a solution and summarize it as a principle in life. A person can be wrong, but they cannot make the same mistake a second time. The hundreds of principles of Ray Dalio written in this book have all come from going through experiences, from many wrong and right decisions he made. It's like a Wikipedia for him. When there is a problem, you can go and check those principles to see if anyone has ever made this mistake before. How did they solve it? Until he had someone create a computer program called "Coach," which contains many principles. When working, if a staff member has a problem that they can't solve, and that problem has been encountered before, they can use keywords to search in that program and see many results, accompanied by detailed guidance and ways to solve the problem.
Whether it's Ray Dalio himself or his hedge fund management company, Bridgewater Associates, whenever they face a problem, they write it down in that program and use it as a principle. If someone faces a similar problem, they can look at the solutions that were done before, apply them, or adapt them according to the current situation. So, in the market, they rarely make mistakes, and they also have a quick reaction to any situation. Let's get to know the author of this book. His name is Ray Dalio. He is nicknamed the "Steve Jobs of investing." He is the most important person in Silicon Valley in this 21st century. He is very famous in the fields of finance and investment. And the book "Principles" that he wrote is also very famous, not losing to him. The most successful achievement recognized in his life is his company that manages the world's largest hedge fund, which is Bridgewater Associates. Today, this hedge fund management company has investment capital of over 160 billion dollars, and his company still maintains its position as the largest and most profitable hedge fund management company in the world. Even though the world has faced several economic crises, his company has still been able to maintain its high profits.
Because of his success in the field of finance, Time magazine of the United States has rated Ray Dalio as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. If we talk about the reason he wrote this book, we have to go back to the early 1980s. At that time, he recorded some of his mistakes in the field of investment because the investment sector has very high risks, and he always encountered new problems that never seemed to end. Day by day, he only solved problems, sometimes the same old problems, and sometimes new problems that arose. He sat down to sum up and summarize the problems he had encountered in the past, such as he noted the patterns of the stock market's ups and downs and found principles and techniques for investing in the stock market, etc. These principles are a mental aid that can help him analyze and prepare for the next investment. The content in this book can really be applied by all of you in your daily lives. This book is divided into three important parts. Part one talks about the history of Ray Dalio's struggles. Part two talks about life principles, and part three talks about work principles. In this book, hundreds of principles are written down, and each principle is something that we encounter in our daily lives. Those principles are arranged in short and easy-to-understand sentences. Not to waste any more time, we come to the first part of this book. The first principle is about life principles. How can we see the world more clearly than before, know what is real, what is not real. The second principle is the principle of work, how to accomplish work with discipline. The last part of the book will tell us how to become a great failure, learn from failure, and use it as a lesson to summarize principles for ourselves.
Chapter 1, we look at life principles. The principles of life are many, but what is most important is that we can distinguish between wrong and right, and can see this world more broadly than before. To put it simply, it is to dare to accept the truth. Perhaps many people say that they are a person of principle and discipline. But in reality, it is not an easy thing that we can follow the principles we have set. We humans tend to value ourselves too highly. This is why we are easily confused about what is truth and what is assumption. For example, the investment guru Warren Buffett once said a very famous phrase: "When people are scared, I am greedy. When people are greedy, I am scared." This principle sounds easy to understand. But those who have experience buying and selling stocks on the stock market really know that it is not an easy thing to see everyone panicking and selling their stocks, while you are the only one holding on to them. We cannot apply Warren Buffett's principle above. Because at that time, we do not know what is truth and what is not. Sometimes, when we see everyone selling their stocks, we might sell along with them.
So, when facing problems or having to make important decisions, how can we ensure that we can make the most correct decision? Ray Dalio has summarized a formula for all of you, which is the 5-step process for achieving goals. No matter what your goal is, you must go through these stages. The five stages are: set a goal, understand the problem, diagnose the problem, design a plan, and execute the plan. It's easy to say, but hard to do. Most people get stuck at the second step and can't move forward. They cannot understand the real problem, do not know what the root of the problem is, and even more, they cannot analyze the root of the problem. Why is that? Ray Dalio also thought about this point. He realized that this problem comes from two main reasons. First, people have "The Blind Spot." People have different perceptions of the same problem. Our mindset limits what we can see. We cannot make a judgment that is truly correct and comprehensive.
This is how people are. When there is a disagreement or our idea is not accepted by others, we will try to explain that we are right, without asking why they disagree. Could they have a better idea? It has reached the point where some people, just by someone slightly contradicting them, get angry with each other. Ray Dalio says the most pitiful thing is that people like to think that they are always right. They are not very willing to understand the ideas of others. Sometimes they know they are wrong, but they still do it. And when they get a result they don't like, they don't accept their mistake either. They always have reasons and always blame others. Why is that? Neuroscientists from a hospital have explained that this is due to the connection and the operating system of the brain. There is a part of the brain that specializes in finding our mistakes. It really wants to know where we are wrong, it likes to find the weaknesses in ourselves. The purpose is to help us grow, to develop ourselves to be better. But another part of our brain is not happy with this cell. It has considered these suggestions and criticisms as an attack instead. So, they have to find every means to defend themselves, to counter the attack. To put it simply, within ourselves, there are two forces that are competing for the right to control our body. In the book "The Elephant and the Rider," a similar view is also raised. How can we ensure that you have a decision that is correct and logical, avoiding the blind spot?
The answer is very simple. First, you have to admit that you are a biased person. You are a person with weaknesses. Ray Dalio has met many top people in the world. He said that in this world, no one is perfect. But what makes those people the top people in the world is that they are people who have an open mind and accept criticism from others. And they know very well that they have weaknesses and blind spots. And they try to find ways to develop their weaknesses to be even better. Of course, making yourself think in this open-minded way is not easy. Ordinary people need up to 18 months to train themselves to be able to adapt to this new habit.
You can start with the small things around you. For example, you can exchange opinions with your friends, siblings, or family members. Discuss and analyze an idea together and learn to make a judgment on a problem to make the right decision. You will notice that discussing, debating, and expressing opinions like this can really help us get a lot of information and ideas from different people that one person alone cannot think of. Besides being determined to be open-minded and accepting suggestions and criticisms from others, Ray Dalio has added one more point: we must learn to calculate the things we do every day and summarize them into a number or a clear conclusion. For example, if you ask someone how many minutes on average they spend on the road commuting from home to work each day, he will probably say, "About half an hour, or sometimes an hour.
It's not fixed, it depends on the traffic on the road." There are very few people, or almost none at all, who have recorded the time they spend on the road and divided it to get an average figure to get an exact number. Knowing this information can really help you manage your daily time and add another level of quality to your life.
Having talked about life principles, we now come to talk about work principles. Talking about these two principles, they go in a parallel direction. It can be said that work principles are life principles applied in the work sector. At this point, the author emphasizes that work principles are more important than life principles. These important work principles have been derived from the experience of the author's company, Ray Dalio. His first work principle is to prioritize idea meritocracy. This means that when a company prepares a strategy or makes an important decision, it must choose the most logical and reasonable idea, without considering the source, position, or role of the person who came up with the idea. Ray Dalio believes that a company can grow big not because its founder is talented, and not by looking at its abundant resources.
But you have to see if that company has implemented the principle of prioritizing idea meritocracy. To get a good idea, of course, the first step is to let everyone express their own opinions. The next step is for everyone to give suggestions and ask each other questions. You might be thinking, with so many ideas, how do you know which one is good and which one is not? Encouraging everyone to express their ideas is just to get them to share their suggestions and their perspectives on our company. The right to make the final decision is in the hands of the expert. For example, we are in a meeting about a financial problem. The marketing department can express their opinion, and the human resources department can also express their opinion. But the right to decide which opinion to take, which one is more reasonable and feasible, only the finance department knows for sure. You might ask, "If the right to make the final decision is still with the finance department, why call other departments to express their opinions? Isn't that just a waste of time?"
This is because people have different understandings, strengths, and weaknesses. Of course, there will be different ideas. To get the best solution, we must gather all the ideas that are feasible, put them on the table to discuss. But not all companies can create this kind of work environment. How can you encourage the work team to express their opinions? This refers to the work principle of Ray Dalio. When he was leading his company, one day after a meeting, he received an email from a junior staff member. We will read the content of that email to all of you. The email said, "Ray, you didn't do well in the meeting just now. It seemed like you were not prepared at all for this meeting. Everyone didn't understand what you were trying to say. You should prepare more before calling everyone to a meeting. Don't waste all of our time. If you need help, I can help you." Finally, that staff member added one more sentence: "If you don't believe me, go ask the people who attended the meeting today. Or come ask me directly." A subordinate talking so bluntly to a boss is not common in other companies. But in Ray's company, it happens frequently. And he never gets angry about these things. In his company, it doesn't matter if it's a senior or a junior staff, if there's a problem or an opinion, it can be raised at any time.
What makes his company different from others is that every meeting requires a voice recording. If someone is mentioned during the meeting and that person is not there, they have to send the recorded voice message to that person to listen, so they know what the work team has said about them. So, in the company Bridgewater of his, there are no secrets, no barriers between senior and junior staff. In fact, this way of working is also good. Often in the work sector, some people don't spend their time working with their whole heart. But sometimes, they spend a lot of time acting as if they are working hard. They have to spend a portion of their time on work and a portion of their time arranging their activities to look like a busy and hard-working person. They try to hide their weaknesses and their laziness. They show what is their strength and their good points. This is the work atmosphere in other places. But in Ray Dalio's company, you don't have to act like this.
You have to be what you are. There is no pressure at all. If you are tired from work, you can go to sleep. If you are hungry and want to eat something, you can go as you please. You don't have to pretend to look like you are working hard, but when the boss is not around, you are playing games or browsing Facebook. Doing this shows no integrity in work and no work efficiency. But in his company, the resignation rate is very high. Why? A company that is so free like this still has people resigning? This is because the discussions in the work team are too intense. Too much freedom, too loose, no rules, no boss, no subordinates, that's why one-third of the new employees cannot fit in with this kind of work environment. But Ray Dalio still sticks to his principles. Those who can journey together must have the same work culture and vision. He values idea meritocracy, no matter whose idea it is. And that opinion or suggestion is judged only by the expert. This means everyone has the right to express their opinion. But whether to implement that opinion or not is up to the person who has the decision-making power in that matter.
Above, we have talked about the life principles and work principles of Ray Dalio. Next, we will talk about ourselves. How can we create a principle for ourselves? In the beginning of this book, the author also wrote that whether his principles are useful to the reader or not depends on whether the reader can apply them effectively or not. What is important is not all those principles. It is the consideration and the thinking behind those principles that are important. Only by understanding the mindset behind all those principles can you make a truly correct decision. In short, principles come from the results of application. Our many wrong and right decisions. It is like an internal code of conduct for ourselves that shows us what is wrong, what is right, what should be done, and what should not be done. Ray Dalio has a bad habit, which is he likes to make mistakes. He created an app called "Pain Button." This app of his was created to record the many mistakes of people and the lessons learned from those mistakes. For example, he made a very big mistake in his life.
This mistake happened during the 1980s. The unemployment rate in the United States at that time was rising sharply, which could lead the US into a severe economic crisis. Ray Dalio was very talented. He predicted this economic crisis in advance. TV stations and mass media invited him to participate as an honored guest to analyze the US economic crisis. He said that very soon, the United States will face a severe economic crisis and the stock market will crash. But as a result, it was not as he analyzed. The stock market prices went up to the sky instead. Ray Dalio suffered a huge loss from his wrong analysis, almost losing everything, left with only his empty hands. But going through this mistake made him learn another new lesson, and later he wrote it into his principles. That is, he changed from "I think I am right" to "Why do I think I am right?" This made him a person with better analysis and decision-making skills. Understanding all these reasons is what made him receive so much fortune later on because of this. When the stock market crashes or there is an economic crisis, his hedge fund company still maintains a strong position and high profits. So Ray Dalio encourages all of you to be brave and dare to make mistakes. And write down the mistakes you have made on paper and the solutions you have found, and summarize them as lessons for yourself and others. Is failure the mother of success?
Only if you are a person who knows how to fail. He teaches us to become a "professional mistake maker." In reality, in our daily lives, we have made countless mistakes. Some mistakes wake us up, and other mistakes make us see new and better opportunities. But our brain has a short-term memory. This means that if you have an experience or a good idea, and you don't put it into practice or review it, you will surely forget it. In this book, what struck me the most is what they say: when you face problems in life and work, don't just think about using emotions. You have to find a solution and summarize it as a principle in life. A person can be wrong, but they cannot make the same mistake a second time. The hundreds of principles of Ray Dalio written in this book have all come from going through experiences, from many wrong and right decisions he made. It's like a Wikipedia for him. When there is a problem, you can go and check those principles to see if anyone has ever made this mistake before. How did they solve it?
Until he had someone create a computer program called "Coach," which contains many principles. When working, if a staff member has a problem that they can't solve, and that problem has been encountered before, they can use keywords to search in that program and see many results, accompanied by detailed guidance and ways to solve the problem. Whether it's Ray Dalio himself or his hedge fund management company, Bridgewater Associates, whenever they face a problem, they write it down in that program and use it as a principle. If someone faces a similar problem, they can look at the solutions that were done before, apply them, or adapt them according to the current situation. So, in the market, they rarely make mistakes, and they also have a quick reaction to any situation. Let's summarize the third important point from this book again. You must have your own principles. You can't just take someone else's principles and apply them blindly. When you face a problem, you must think of a feasible solution and write it down as a principle for yourself.
You must be a person who dares to make mistakes, learns from mistakes, and becomes an expert in making mistakes. Be a professional mistake maker. This is what Ray Dalio has taught us. The important content in this book is just this much. Let's do a quick summary again. First, we talked about the life principles of Ray Dalio. He advised that we are humans with a higher level of thinking than animals, the most intelligent beings living on this earth. In life, we must learn to be open-minded, be curious, and always want to learn. We must abandon blaming ourselves and some unnecessary things that do not benefit you. We must learn to distinguish between right and wrong, and have a logical analysis for every story that happens.
Only then can we manage our own lives well. Next, Ray Dalio introduced the work principles of his. He prioritizes idea meritocracy, no matter whose idea it is. And the decision to adopt any idea is based on its logic and reasonableness. And whether that idea or suggestion is feasible or not, only the experts have the right to decide. In his company, there are no big shots, no small fries, no boss, no subordinates. Anyone can express their opinion.
And what is important is transparency in work. There are no secrets in his company. And finally, we talked about how to create a principle for ourselves. Because Ray Dalio's principles may not be applicable to us. Because times are different, systems are different, circumstances are different, and sometimes luck is different too. So, only through experience can we create a principle for ourselves and be successful. This is why you must make yourself an expert in making mistakes. Make mistakes, but don't die. Learn from the mistakes, draw lessons, and write them down as principles for yourself.