Page 282 - Ray Dalio - Principles

willingness to help others (work within a group) toward
these common goals. Our fates are intertwined. One
should know that others can be relied upon to help. As a

corollary, substandard performance cannot be tolerated
anywhere because it would hurt everyone.

Long-term relationships are both a) intrinsically
gratifying and b)efficient, and should be intentionally built.
Turnover requires re-training and therefore creates
setbacks.

Money is a byproduct of excellence, not a goal. Our
overriding objective is excellence and constant

improvement at Bridgewater. To be clear, it is not to make
lots of money. The natural extension of this is not that you
should be happy with little money. On the contrary—you
should expect to make a lot. If we operate consistently with
this philosophy we should be productive and the company
should do well financially. There is comparatively little

age- and seniority-based hierarchy.

Each person at Bridgewater should act like an owner,
responsible for operating in this way and for holding
others accountable to operate in this way.

• A believability-weighted idea

meritocracy is the best system for

making effective decisions.

Unlike Lombardi, whose success depended on having his
players follow his instructions, I needed my players to be
independent thinkers who could bang around their different

points of view and reach better conclusions than any one of us
could come up with on our own. I needed to create an
environment in which everyone had the right and the
responsibility to make sense of things for themselves and to
fight openly for what they think is best—and where the best
thinking won out. I needed a real idea meritocracy, not some
theoretical version of one. That’s because an idea meritocracy

—i.e., a system that brings together smart, independent
thinkers and has them productively disagree to come up with