What Are Your Principles?
The book “Principles” by Ray Dalio details the lessons he has learned and documented in running one of the worlds largest hedge funds. It is a very extensive list covering life, work, and investing. In outline form the list is 20 pages.
This is not something you can just scan and say “I like that one” or “I will incorporate that one.” No, these take some thought. Some may already be part of your daily life, others will take some significant changes.
What ones did I find that impacted me the most? “Be radically open-minded and radically transparent.” If you do at least these two he says your life will change for the better. The challenge is, making these part of everyday life will be a big change. I am not close-minded, but I do hold onto my own opinions too strongly at times. I need to spend more time to elicit the views of others and give them a full review and not just pay lip service.
The radical transparency will be the toughest. Now, he means this more from the business side. That is, you don’t need to do this on the personal level. You can keep your deepest inner thoughts to yourself.
Can I be radically transparent at work when it is not the way things are done by everyone else? Can my organization even begin to try this? I need to come up with a way to test this out. In order for this to even have a chance I can’t go into it with preconceived notions. I just have to see how it goes and assess how to adjust. However, I do accept the idea behind this principle and want to see it work.
As I said the book lists a lot of criteria. I need to define my principles and see where changes are required. I think everyone should do this so they can understand and can articulate just what is important to them.
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