Page 137 - Ray Dalio - Principles

have one (e.g., the birth of a child, the loss of a job, a personal
disagreement) and compile them in a list, it would probably
total just a few hundred items and only a few of them would

be unique to you. You might want to try this. Not only will
you see for yourself if what I’m saying is true, but you will
also start to build a list of the things you need to think about
and have principles for.

Whatever success I’ve had is because of the principles I
followed and not because of anything unique about me, so
anyone following these principles can expect to produce

broadly similar results. That said, I don’t want you to follow
my (or anyone’s) principles blindly. I suggest that you think
through all the principles available to you from different
sources and put together a collection of your own that you can
turn to whenever reality sends “another one of those” your
way.

Life Principles and Work Principles are organized in outline

form at three different levels so you can skim along the surface
or dive in depending on the amount of time and interest you
have.

1 Higher-level principles, which are also

the chapter titles, are preceded by

single numbers.

1.1 Mid-level principles are contained within each
chapter and are designated by two numbers: one

indicating the higher-level principle it is under and

the other showing the order in which it appears in
the chapter.

a. Sub-principles fall under the mid-level principles and are marked with
letters.

All three levels of principles have explanations following
them. To give you a quick overview, I’ve included summaries
of principles at the end of Life Principles and the beginning of
Work Principles. I suggest you start with the higher-level
principles and the text explaining them, plus the headings for