I finish a lot of books on walks while listening to Audible. The book Principles by Ray Dalio was one of the most memorable books I have ever read because of not only the lessons I learned but I listened to it while I was on the best travels of my life but at the same time the loneliest.
It was the best because I traveled with my family and enjoyed the tours with them, and the loneliest because, after 15 days of quality time, they left me alone for my business side trip and I got stuck on a heavy snowstorm in NYC. The worst “sepanx” in my life.
Anyway, long story short, I had to take a bus going to D.C and stay there overnight to catch a flight to LA due to delayed flights in NY.
I walked in the city for two hours while listening to the book, I pondered a lot while taking pictures of the historical buildings.
D.C. was cleaner than New York and has wider roads but the weather still was chill to the bones. I craved for a fine lunch after eating a lot of light meals from Starbucks and fast foods in NY. I had tomato soup, steak, greens & vanilla ice cream for dessert at The Smith.
Ray Dalio did a good job of narrating the hardships of growing a company and managing it. He founded Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world with approximately $160B of assets under management. The company has been criticized by some for being cult-like.
There’s a ton of lessons you can learn from this book but here are the lessons unique to me that I learned and really stuck with me:
Lesson 1 – Growing a company from 5 to 60 has the same kind of stress vs growing from 60 to 700 and 700 to 1,500.
Looking back, I recall those moments when we were in a small condo with just 5 of us. We were so immersed and stressed with delivering the product for one client.
And now that we grew as a team and we attend to hundreds of clients, I feel its the same kind of stress. The difference is, I do the leg work myself in the past, but now I orchestrate and manage the team.
So I ponder, am I a good leader? Am I a good manager?
The same questions Ray asked in his book.
It got me inspired thinking, I am on the right track.
These feelings are normal regardless of who you are or the size or scale of your company. He even mentioned he didn’t feel satisfied personally even his company was performing well.
The book also discussed how to be a shaper, a good characteristic of a visionary leader just like Jobs, Gates, and Musk.
Lesson 2 – Be a Shaper. A shaper is someone who comes up with unique and valuable visions and builds them out beautifully, typically over the doubts of oppositions of others. They are independent visionary thinkers, extremely resilient, can see both big pictures and granular details, and simultaneously creative, practical and systematic.
Lesson 3 – Do not tolerate problems. This one is so sweet and I used this quote in many of my posts and our team meetings. As long as you do not tolerate problems and take action, then you have nothing to worry about.
Lesson 4 – Pain + Reflection = Progress. This is his main principle for success. In every progress, there’s pain and failure. It is inevitable.
Here’s a video of his Principles For Success:
Lesson 5 – How the Economic Machine Works – This is the first time I was able to understand clearly how the economy works. Here’s another one:
It is just sad that the coronavirus has a very significant blow to him and his company. In his recent interview, he estimated that global corporate losses will amount to $12 trillion due to this pandemic. But I am confident that applying these principles will help us be resilient and make a comeback.
Ray has a scheduled AMA today on Reddit at 3 pm EST. I believe he has very knowledgeable and intelligent opinions about market forecasts during and after this pandemic.
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