Principles: Life and Work

by Ray Dalio

To me, the greatest success you can have as the person in charge is to orchestrate others to do things well without you.

While mankind is very intelligent in relation to other species, we have the intelligence of moss growing on a rock compared to nature as a whole.

most people lack the courage to confront their own weaknesses and make the hard choices that this process requires. Ultimately, it comes down to the following five decisions: 1. Don’t confuse what you wish were true with what is really true. 2. Don’t worry about looking good—worry instead about achieving your goals. 3. Don’t overweight first-order consequences relative to second- and third-order ones. 4. Don’t let pain stand in the way of progress. 5. Don’t blame bad outcomes on anyone but yourself.

Intelligent people who embrace their mistakes and weaknesses substantially outperform their peers who have the same abilities but bigger ego barriers.