Page 312 - Ray Dalio - Principles

2 Cultivate Meaningful

Work and Meaningful

Relationships

Meaningful relationships are invaluable for building and
sustaining a culture of excellence, because they create the trust
and support that people need to push each other to do great
things. If the overwhelming majority of people care about
having an excellent community, they will take care of it, which
will yield both better work and better relationships.

Relationships have to be genuine, not forced; at the same time,
the culture of the community will have a big influence on how
people value relationships and how they behave with each
other. To me, a meaningful relationship is one in which people
care enough about each other to be there whenever someone
needs support and they enjoy each other’s company so much

that they can have great times together both inside and outside
of work. I literally love many of the people I work with, and I
respect them deeply.

I have often been asked whether relationships at
Bridgewater are more like those of a family or those of a team,
the implication being that in a family there is unconditional
love and a permanent relationship, while in a team the

attachment is only as strong as the person’s contribution.
Before answering this question, I want to emphasize that either
is good by me, because both families and teams provide
meaningful relationships and that neither is anything like a
typical job at a typical company, where the relationships are
primarily utilitarian. But to answer the question directly, I
wanted Bridgewater to be like a family business in which