Constantly probe the people who report to you, and encourage them to probe you. Ray Dalio More Quotes by Ray Dalio More Quotes From Ray Dalio To have an idea meritocracy, one needs to do three things. First, they have to put their honest thoughts on the table, for everyone to look at and everyone to work through. Second, they need to have thoughtful disagreement, by which there are quality exchanges, in which there's open mindedness and the realization that no one has all the right answers. And you can work through that and get to better answers because good collective decision making is better than any individual decision making. And third, you have to have ways of getting past the disagreements if they remain. Ray Dalio thoughtfuldecisionpast I believe that understanding what is good is obtained by looking at the way the world works and figuring out how to operate in harmony with it to help it evolve. Ray Dalio understandinglifebelieve Pull in your belt, spend less, and reduce debt. Ray Dalio beltsdebt I have a bad rote memory, but I tend to learn through my experiences. And then when I went into the markets, and then starting my business as an entrepreneur, that affected my thinking a lot, too, because in order to be successful as both an investor and an entrepreneur, one has to be an independent thinker and bet against the consensus and be right. Because the consensus is built into the price, and if you're not an independent thinker in the markets you won't succeed. And if you're not an independent thinker as an entrepreneur starting out, you're not going to bring anything special. Ray Dalio independentsuccessfulmemories People who acquire things beyond their usefulness not only will derive little or no marginal gains from these acquisitions, but they also will experience negative consequences, as with any form of gluttony. Ray Dalio growthlifepeople In China anything less than 6% growth is a recession meaning that it also causes financial problems and it's disruptive and it's a problem. Ray Dalio financial-problemsgrowthcauses That's what I mean by radical truth. I mean accepting reality. Ray Dalio acceptingmeanreality In order to get past disagreements, you just can't have one person with power decide. In other words, so just because I'm a boss, it would be terrible if I then said, "Okay, we're gonna go do this." That's why, after that thoughtful disagreement, there has to be a process of an idea meritocracy. That means okay, now you have to vote, not that the decision resides with power. And then you vote and move beyond it. Ray Dalio thoughtfulmeanmoving I'm sure Donald Trump will think that he has the truth, and some journalist is arguing that he has truth, and somebody else is arguing that they have the truth. And in fact it's even worse than that because they're so hell bent on their arguments that they will distort the truth consciously. They'll manipulate the facts to support their arguments because they're so hung up in the fight. That's where the problem is, so we argue all the time. Ray Dalio supportfightingthinking The media has the power to create an entrenched perception of reality that's incorrect. Ray Dalio mediaperceptionreality The main reason I write the daily observations is because I want to know where I'm wrong. So lots of times if somebody points something out it helps me, and I want to have a diversified bet of uncorrelated bets. Ray Dalio wantwritinghelping If it didn't happen in your life before, then you're not paying attention you don't think it's possible. But almost all important events never happen in your life before. Ray Dalio important-eventsattentionthinking Meditation helps you stay in a calm, clear-headed state so that when challenges come at you, you can deal with them like a ninja - in a calm thoughtful way. When you're centered, your emotions are not hijacking you. Ray Dalio thoughtfulmeditationchallenges Since the only way you are going to find solutions to painful problems is by thinking deeply about them - i.e., reflecting - if you can develop a knee-jerk reaction to pain that is to reflect rather than to fight or flee, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving. Ray Dalio painfightinglife Imagine if you had baseball cards that showed all the performance stats for your people: batting averages, home runs, errors, ERAs, win/loss records. You could see what they did well and poorly and call on the right people to play the right positions in a very transparent way. Ray Dalio baseballhomerunning Credit is a promise to deliver money. It will produce GDP but you'll create credit... So you reach a certain point that that you can't do that anymore... There are choices. And how do we best support, apportion the money? How much is going to be transferred? Ray Dalio gdpsupportchoices I was about twenty and the Beatles were meditating and I heard about it and they had a center in New York and I came to the center and I learned about it. Ray Dalio twentiesnew-yorkheard I think so many people are reactive... they see things in a short term way they're right up against it. Ray Dalio peoplewaythinking Once you accept that playing the game will be uncomfortable, and you do it for a while, it will become much easier (like it does when getting fit). When you excel at it, you will find your ability to get what you want thrilling. Ray Dalio growthgameslife By and large, life will give you what you deserve and it doesn't give a damn what you like. So it is up to you to take full responsibility to connect what you want with what you need to do to get it, and then to do those things. Ray Dalio responsibilitygivinglife
