Principles of success by Ray Dalio
What is success? What does it mean? How do you know that you have reached success? How do I get successful? Is there a roadmap I can follow that can make me successful? Are there any steps I can follow in order to get successful?
These are fundamental questions that we all ask ourselves. It wasn’t until I received the book that I learned what success is and what kind of path I can follow to get it. Often, those questions are answered in broad terms such as “working harder” or “having goals.” There is nothing wrong with those things but they seem to be very broad with no clear direction.
But, this blog post goes a little deeper than that. This blog post is based on a book by Ray Dalio – one of the biggest hedge fund managers in the world.
How I came across this book?
This book took me by surprise. The reason being that I was not expecting this to arrive in the mail for me. When I went on Ray Dalio’s website, I clicked on the free book and expected to get an ebook in the email. That is how it usually happens, but this was different.
I did not get an ebook in my email. I thought it was a glitch and forgot about it. What took me by surprise was that an actual book arrived in the mail. When you get an ebook in your email, you think you will read it later (that never happens). But, when someone sends an actual book, you are more inclined to read it.
As I went through the book, I realized that there is a reason some people achieve success while others do not. As I started to break down my own progress from last year, I realized that I was following some of these principles but I was missing a few critical things. Those little things make a huge difference. So, let’s dig in and see what Ray is talking about in the book Principles of success.
Principles
What are principles? Principles are guidelines that help us navigate this life. They give us reminders to stay on track and achieve what we want to achieve. Below are 4 main things Ray talks about in his book:
1 – Design your Life
If we think of our lives as a movie and us as the actor, director, and screenwriter the whole perception of life changes. If we look at life with this philosophy, it means that we are designing our lives. And if we are designing our life, we are taking ownership of it. When I say to become an actor, I mean someone who puts everything aside and focuses on the story. A person who engrains themselves in the storyline that they are totally focussed on just executing the storyline.
2 – Fear of Life
This is the biggest obstacle we face – the fear of life itself. The fear of life includes the fear of the unknown & the fear of “what if.” This is completely normal. From my personal experience, I can tell you that I let my fear rule me for most of my life. I never volunteered for anything, I always waited for the right moment and always took a back seat to life. This changed when I decided that I am going to write my own storyline and execute it each and every day.
3 – What defines our life
I often ask myself. What defines my life? Like what is it? Is there one defining moment? Honestly, after thinking about this, I realized that life is nothing more than the hours and minutes combined. Those hours and minutes matter and the decisions made in those hours and minutes matter as well. Over time, those small decisions make a huge difference in the direction of our lives. Every day we decide not to make a decision in fear of life, another day is lost.
4 – Gamify my life
Believe it or not, we like games. We like to be rewarded for our actions. The more we get rewarded for doing a task, the more we do it. Do you remember when you were little, playing that game or the puzzle? How did it feel when you finished it? Did it feel good? I would like to bet that it did.
This is what we need to do in life. First, we need to define our success, then we need to look at problems as the piece of a puzzle or a checkpoint. Every time we come up with a problem, it is an opportunity to come up with a solution aka a piece of the big puzzle.
Now, one of the biggest things Ray recommends is to reflect on the decisions and the outcomes. This gives us an opportunity to know where that puzzle piece fits in the larger picture.
The steps to success
Step 1 – Be focused
Ray recommends being focused. In terms of life, we humans do not live for a long time. This earth is billions of years old and we only live maybe 80 to 100 years. So, if we want to live our life to its full potential, we need focus. It is easy to be pulled in all directions because it is very easy to go for the shiny object. Unfortunately, this leads us to be pulled in all directions without going anywhere. If we want success, we need to focus.
Step 2 – Problem-solving leads to rewards.
Problems used to cause me a lot of anxiety. Every day, I would hope it would go smoothly but that was never the case. Something always came up. After a while, I realized that the only solution here is to be a better problem solver.
Once I created this attitude of problem-solving and made it a game, it led to a total change in my identity. I was no longer scared of problems, I looked forward to solving them.
According to Ray, success is defined as solving problems and making good decisions.
Step 3 – Never just look at the surface level
This is very hard to think about. When a problem comes, we all just want to fix it and move on. But, in order to be good at something, we have to dig deep. We have to do root cause analysis. This root cause analysis helps us to dig deeper and find the real cause of the problem. Not just the surface level issue.
Step 4 – Create a process and have a plan
One of the biggest things I have learned is to have a process. The process reduces the chance of error and planning is a big part of success.
Step 5 – Take action
All the above things only mean maybe 30% of success. The biggest part is taking action. If we do not take action, then nothing will get done. Taking action was the biggest issue I had. It took me a while to associate taking an action with relieving anxiety instead of having anxiety. But once that association was made, it made my life a lot easier.
Life itself
There a lot of times in our lives, we tend to live in the moment. Something happens and we feel like it is the end of the world. But, there is always the path forward. We might not see at the moment, but in the end, there is always a path forward.
Another thing Ray talks about is pain. We humans are not designed to look forward to pain. In a way, we are designed to always go for pleasure. But, I feel like this is the dichotomy of life. The things we want are just behind that pain, but until we feel it, we do not get what we want.
If we learn to embrace pain and anxiety, we would all be amazed at how wonderful life is and how much growth we can have. Ray recommends learning to be in pain, learning to master pain, and persevering.
One last thing that struck a chord with me was success is not about the end goal, success is about the struggle. It is the struggle that brings growth and if we are not growing, we are dying.
Biggest barriers to success = EGO + Blind spots
EGO
Ego is a tricky beast. In a way, the ego is there to protect us from this world. It puts our needs above everything else. At times, it can be our whole existence. Ego has a tendency of telling that we are right and there is no need to check for things. Ego tells us that we are not wrong and other people are there to attack us.
But growth happens when we embrace growth itself. When we counter our ego with the need for growth. Ray recommends we should focus on the truth instead of what is right. Because the truth is what leads to growth, not the “I am right” attitude.
Blind Spots
We would all like to think that we are all-knowing and right all the time. But, that is not the case. We are not right all the time. We have blind spots and the best thing we can do is acknowledge it and work on covering those blind spots.
New thinking
Think of life as Evolution. Our goal is to improve, get better, and defeat the biggest enemy (ourselves). Have goals, have the courage to act on those goals, and have a mindset of continual improvement. Keep the ego in check and be aware of your faults.
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