Page 74 - Ray Dalio - Principles

They sent me a memo first, the gist of which was that my way
of operating was having a negative effect on everyone in the
company. Here’s how they put it:

What does Ray do well?

He is very bright and innovative. He understands markets
and money management. He is intense and energetic. He
has very high standards and passes these to others around
him. He has good intentions about teamwork, building
group ownership, providing flexible work conditions to
employees, and compensating people well.

What Ray doesn’t do as well:

Ray sometimes says or does things to employees which

makes them feel incompetent, unnecessary, humiliated,
overwhelmed, belittled, oppressed, or otherwise bad. The
odds of this happening rise when Ray is under stress. At
these times, his words and actions toward others create
animosity toward him and leave a lasting impression. The

impact of this is that people are demotivated rather than
motivated. This reduces productivity and the quality of the
environment. The effect reaches far beyond the single
employee. The smallness of the company and the openness
of communication means that everyone is affected when
one person is demotivated, treated badly, not given due
respect. The future success of the company is highly
dependent on Ray’s ability to manage people as well as

money. If he doesn’t manage people well, growth will be
stunted and we will all be affected.

Ugh. That hurt and surprised me. I never imagined that I
was having that sort of effect. These people were my extended
family. I didn’t want them to feel “incompetent, unnecessary,
humiliated, overwhelmed, belittled, oppressed, or otherwise

bad.” Why didn’t they tell me directly? What was I doing
wrong? Were my standards too high? For Bridgewater to
continue to be a one-in-ten-thousand–type company we had to
have exceptional people and hold them to extremely high
standards. Was I demanding too much?