5 min read ⌚ 

Life and Work

Having principles can help you see the truth and make wiser decisions.

So, what are you waiting for?

Read on!

Who Should Read “Principles” and Why?

At times your life will feel like it is too much to handle. You will feel problems, questions and possible answers all around you, and you will feel dizzy by the choices you are presented with.

In order to cope with such situations, it is important that you have a set of principles that can show you the way in any situation.

“Principles” does just that – gives you a guideline you can follow to persevere.

We recommend it to all readers.

About Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio is one of the most influential and wealthy people in the world. He is the founder of Bridgewater Associates.

“Principles PDF Summary”

What are principles?

Principles are a set of guidelines that tell fundamental truths that can help you cope with any situation in life.

If you think deeply about how to act to every little thing that happens in life, you’ll feel the burden of every decision.

It is good to have a go-to direction which you can follow when you come to a certain situation in life, and that is why developing your principles is significant.

When you are finding your core principles, you need to stay grounded and keep a realistic worldview.

Life can be messy, and many times is, and you need to accept that as part of your experience as well.

When you do accept it, you will come to the conclusion that it is important that in confusing and nonideal situations, you adopt a rational approach, and steer away from emotional thinking.

Also, bad situations do not have to be all that bad!

Promise yourself that you will learn from each situation that comes your way, most of all from the bad ones.

If you want to be successful, especially in the professional world, you have to learn how to bounce back after having a hard time.

Not only you have to bounce back, but you have to get up stronger and more competent than you were before the hardships happened.

Just think of life as a game, in which you gather points for achieving goals and getting results.

Adopting this perspective will make it easier to bear the hard times, since no one “dies” from just one hit in games, you just lose some points that you can make up for later on.

Another thing the game-mindset will do is that it will make you aware that there is no point in playing if you do not have a goal in your mind that you want to achieve.

To set a goal, you want to work at the moment, prioritize things and narrow them down as much as you can.

Everything is possible in life, but also you cannot have everything all at the same time.

This is a mistake many people make: trying to achieve many objectives at once.

This type of multitasking will not yield any significant results, because, in order to excel, you have to put all of your focus and energy into one place.

The scattered focus will get you scattered results that are too small to count.

After you set your goal, study the situation you are in and all of the challenges that are on your way or the obstacles that may arise.

We cannot stress out enough that you have to be completely realistic in this point.

Put the personal view aside, and make an objective evaluation.

Also, do not forget to evaluate your own weaknesses as well, as you have to know where you are the most vulnerable, in order to be able to make sound and wise decisions.

In your business try to practice radical truth and radical transparency.

Radical truth is making sure that all the important issues are out in the open, and creating a corporate culture in which the employees’ opinions and stances are appreciated.

Criticism is the way to improvement, do not forget that.

Radical transparency, on the other hand, is similar to radical truth, with the difference that it focuses on the expectations that are set from the managers regarding the employees’ behaviors, and vice versa.

It is important that managers and employees are in a trusting and respectful relationship since that is the only way they will successfully work together for a long time.

The best workplaces are those in which employees show more respect and consideration for their coworkers than they expect their co-workers to show to them.

However, many people believe that workplaces are competitive, so it will be hard to induce such unselfish behavior.

Key Lessons from “Principles”

1.      Principles Are All About Objectivity
2.      Exercise Radical Truthfulness and Transparency
3.      Build an Idea Mediocracy

Principles Are All About Objectivity

Principles will allow you to see the actual reality, instead of relying on your own projections of it.

Rational thinking is the only thing that can help you in times when you need to make sound and wise decisions. Principles remove flaws in your brain by eliminating emotional thinking and reactions not based on reality.

Exercise Radical Truthfulness and Transparency

Many of the principles you will find for your self but what is really important is that you embrace radical truthfulness and transparency in your company.

This means creating an environment in which employees will feel free to give their opinions, and they will know exactly what is expected of them.

These two principles will make sure that the relationship between employees and managers is a good and long-lasting one.

Build an Idea Mediocracy

In your company, you need to build idea meritocracy, which is a place where the place is given to the best ideas.

Of course, in order to choose the best ideas, you need to enable all ideas to come to the surface, where the second key lesson has a great deal of importance.

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“Principles” Quotes

Our Critical Review

“Principles” is a book that will teach you how to stay strong and rational during hard times that call for tough decisions.

The amount of detail and thinking the author has put into the book is fascinating, so it is a book everyone can learn from.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.