Page 214 - Ray Dalio - Principles

over again in life: the spacey, impractical Artist; the tidy Perfectionist; the Crusher who runs
through brick walls to get things done; the Visionary who pulls amazing big ideas seemingly
out of the air. Over time I came up with a list of others, including Shaper, Chirper, Tweaker,
and Open-Minded Learner, as well as Advancer, Creator, Cat-Herder, Gossiper, Loyal Doer,
Wise Judge, and others.
To be clear, archetypes are less useful than the better fleshed-out pictures created through
the assessments. They are not precise; they are more like simple caricatures, but they can be
useful when it comes to assembling teams. Individual people will always be more complex
than the archetypes that describe them, and they may well match up with more than one. For
example, the Spacey Artist may or may not also be a Perfectionist or may be a Crusher too.
While I won’t go over all of them, I will describe Shapers—the one that best represents me—
in some depth.
h. Shapers are people who can go from visualization to actualization. I wrote a lot about the people I call
“shapers” in the first part of this book. I use the word to mean someone who comes up with
unique and valuable visions and builds them out beautifully, typically over the doubts of
others. Shapers get both the big picture and the details right. To me, it seems that Shaper =
Visionary + Practical Thinker + Determined.

I’ve found that shapers tend to share attributes such as intense curiosity and a compulsive
need to make sense of things, independent thinking that verges on rebelliousness, a need to
dream big and unconventionally, a practicality and determination to push through all obstacles
to achieve their goals, and a knowledge of their own and others’ weaknesses and strengths so
they can orchestrate teams to achieve them. Perhaps even more importantly, they can hold
conflicting thoughts simultaneously and look at them from different angles. They typically
love to knock things around with other really smart people and can easily navigate back and
forth between the big picture and the granular details, counting both as equally important.
People wired with enough of these ways of thinking that they can operate in the world as
shapers are very rare. But they could never succeed without working with others who are more
naturally suited for other things and whose ways of thinking and acting are also essential.
Knowing how one is wired is a necessary first step on any life journey. It doesn’t matter what
you do with your life, as long as you are doing what is consistent with your nature and your
aspirations. Having spent time with some of the richest, most powerful, most admired people
in the world, as well as some of the poorest, most disadvantaged people in the most obscure
corners of the globe, I can assure you that, beyond a basic level, there is no correlation
between happiness levels and conventional markers of success. A carpenter who derives his
deepest satisfaction from working with wood can easily have a life as good or better than the
president of the United States. If you’ve learned anything from this book I hope it’s that
everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and everyone has an important role to play in life.
Nature made everything and everyone for a purpose. The courage that’s needed the most isn’t
the kind that drives you to prevail over others, but the kind that allows you to be true to your
truest self, no matter what other people want you to be.

4.5 Getting the right people in the right roles in support of
your goal is the key to succeeding at whatever you
choose to accomplish.

Whether it’s in your private life or your work life, it is best for you to work with others in such
a way that each person is matched up with other complementary people to create the best mix
of attributes for their tasks.
a. Manage yourself and orchestrate others to get what you want. Your greatest challenge will be having
your thoughtful higher-level you manage your emotional lower-level you. The best way to do
that is to consciously develop habits that will make doing the things that are good for you
habitual. In managing others, the analogy that comes to mind is a great orchestra. The person
in charge is the shaper-conductor who doesn’t “do” (e.g., doesn’t play an instrument, though he