What could you learn from a Billionaire?

Imagine you could get advice from a billionaire on how to be more successful and how to find your success quicker. 

Does that sound good?

Well, that's kind of possible if you read the book Principles by Ray Dalio! In his book, Dalio shares the wisdom he has acquired on his journey and shares his perspective on how you can deal with life both on personal and professional matters.

In case you never heard of him before, Ray Dalio is a billionaire American hedge fund manager and philanthropist who has served as co-chief investment officer of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. 

Dalio understands that he is now in a phase of his life where he needs to give back and share what he has learned that is what's motivated him to write the book.

I can't recommend you enough to read this book! 

To give you a glimpse of what you can learn I would like to share with you some o the points I found awesome.

1 - Meritocracy of Ideas - Stop trying to prove yourself right at all costs

Mate, this is powerful! Learn to ask yourself "Am I right?"

Listen to other people's ideas and understand their perspectives and why they think as they think. You will learn more and more. 

Remember the goal shouldn't be to prove that you are right, but instead, find what's right, it doesn't matter you got it first.

Sometimes the best idea will be a combination of two or more ideas from different people with different points of view that only will be brought to life if all parts have the right attitude and empathy to listen and extract what's more valuable from everybody that is there to contribute.

Disagree is hard, sometimes we identify so hard with our ideas that when somebody disagrees with us, we feel that we are being personally attacked, right? 

If that happens to you recognize what you're feeling, and remember that this is not a big deal, that you may have blind spots, and that its more important to find the truth than to be right.

Learn to deal with disagreement to achieve what he calls thoughtful disagreement which is fundamental to discuss different ideas and find or create the best one.

Of course, not all ideas have the same value at all times, if you are discussing a medical matter, listening to your doctor would be best. So the level of knowledge and experience might count.

But in the end, the best ideas should always win, it doesn't matter where it came from, the highest-paid person in the company or the intern that has just arrived.

2 - Every mistake is an opportunity to learn a new principle and improve

Every time you make a mistake, it doesn't matter how painful and annoying it may be, strive to extract a principle from it. Something you can relate to in the future, so you do not fall in the same trap again and again.

3 - Embrace the ups and downs of Evolution

When you try something new your performance will often and naturally fall for some time until you master the new approach.

This evolution cycle with ups and downs will happen in your personal life, in your career, and even in the company you work for.

4 - Write your principles down

Finally, Dalio recommends that everybody writes their principles down.

Every time you are making an important decision try to understand what principle is behind that decision then write it. Keep revisiting your principles and improving them.

For me, this is gold!

It's not that easy and quick hack to find success, but it's powerful and can make a big difference in your life.

If you want to go deeper I recommend you to watch Dalio's TED Talk

Thank you for reading it.

Please don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Cheers!