Page 278 - Ray Dalio - Principles

The rare few that have been able to evolve well over the
decades have been successful at that evolutionary/looping
process, which also is the process that has made Bridgewater
progressively more successful for forty years. That is the

process I want to pass along to you.

As I mentioned earlier, nothing is more important or more
difficult than to get the culture and the people right. Whatever
successes we’ve had at Bridgewater were the result of doing
that well—and whatever failures were due to our not doing it
adequately. That might seem odd because, as a global
macroeconomic investor, one might think that, above all else, I

had to get the economics and investments right, which is true.
But to do that, I needed to get the people and culture right first.
And, to inspire me to do what I did, I needed to have
meaningful work and meaningful relationships.

As the entrepreneur/builder of Bridgewater, I naturally
shaped the organization to be consistent with my values and
principles. I went after what I wanted most, in the way that

seemed most natural to me with the people I chose to be with,
and we and Bridgewater evolved together.

If you had asked me what my objective was when I started
out, I would’ve said it was to have fun working with people I
like. Work was a game I played with passion and I wanted to
have a blast playing it with people I enjoyed and respected. I
started Bridgewater out of my apartment with a pal I played

rugby with who had no experience in the markets and a friend
we hired as our assistant. I certainly wasn’t thinking about
management at the time. Management seemed to me like
something people in gray suits with slide presentations did. I
never set out to manage, let alone to have principles about

work and management.

From reading Life Principles, you know that I liked to
imagine and build out new, practical concepts that never
existed before. I especially loved doing these things with
people who were on the same mission with me. I treasured
thoughtful disagreement with them as a way of learning and
raising our odds of making good decisions, and I wanted all

the people I worked with to be my “partners” rather than my