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Book Review: Principle For Success By Ray Dalio

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Book Review: Principle For Success By Ray Dalio

The book, principles of success is written by Ray Dalio, a well-known hedge fund manager, and philanthropist.

Ray Dalio has shared his personal experience of struggle, achievements, and how he does it all in this book through words and illustrations. This book is a masterpiece of rules, activities, and great advice for anybody who wants to succeed in his life.

It is fabulous to learn from someone who has achieved such a spectacular success. Everybody wants to be a popular and successful person, but only a handful of people try and navigate through all ups and downs of their lives and live their dreams. And when it comes to learning from others, you should choose none other than those who have proven their skills.

Book Review of Principle for Success by Ray Dalio

Here is my review for the book: Principles of Success by Ray Dalio. I completed the book in the first week of June 2020.

Here are some of the key points from the book that have great wisdom. 

  • You have a long and adventurous journey of life ahead. And to navigate it through successfully living all your dreams, you need to have principles in dealing with realities that would come on your way. If you want to be a successful person then you must have the principles of success like all other successful people have.
  • The two things that are important in a successful person's life are “What to do" and "courage to do it". Have you figured out what you should do? Do you have the courage to do it? Check it in yourself now. And here comes the first principle of Ray and that is “Think for yourself and be completely open minded”.
  •  Throughout our lives, we would encounter countless situations where we have to decide what to do and move ahead. In those situations, our quality of decisions would decide how we would lead our life further. If you don’t make good decisions, you will see a misery ahead and if you decide following all your successful principles you would lead a life of your dream.
  • You would not get all those successful principles at once. This is a rough road to success and you would make mistakes that would teach you a lesson. You would learn from them progressing in your journey. You would become a better person every time you face the problem and learn from it. And next time when you face a similar problem, you have already a solution for it. And here comes the second principles of success” Knowing what is true is essential for making good decisions"
  • Embrace reality. You can’t change the rules of nature instead you must be ready with your own set of things in different situations which you learn from mistakes you made earlier. So, if you're focused on achieving your dreams, understand the obstacles on your way to success and keep moving in any condition then you can have a successful life. And this becomes the third principle of Ray" Your dreams+Reality of life+Determination to keep going= A Successful Life"
  •  A successful life is a very broad term. And it has a different meaning for different people. We all have different types of goals in our lives and if we succeed in them we feel successful. 
  • Whatever path you choose for success, you're going to face many challenges ahead which you need to overcome with strength and determination. You would face problems, You would face issues because of your weaknesses, you would face issues because of your mistakes. The challenges show that you're moving ahead and progressing. Here comes another principle of Ray"Pain+Reflection=Progress".
  • Ray explains through his experience that living a successful life is just following a 5 step process. 1) You must know your goals and work for them 2) Learn about the problems on your way to your goals 3) Diagnose the problems and know the root cause of them 4) Design plans to solve your problems 5) Do it or execute your plans and reach your goals. This 5 step process is everywhere.
  • Once you start following this 5 step process, you would start ascending to higher levels of success and so the challenges. 
  • Terrible things happen to all of us and they can either ruin us or improve us a lot. And your life depends on how good you make decisions. There could be a moment in your life when you would find that you have lost everything and you can do nothing but this would also pass. There is always the best path afterward which you could not see at the moment.
  • Everything that occurs in your life is a result of causes that make it happen. And this is a perpetual motion machine because everything is a machine. What happens to anyone has a reason for it. You can deal with it better if you learn from it, and use your perspective.
  •  Everything happens, again and again, because they are so linked to the process of causes and effects. Some things happen frequently and some happen after a long time.
  • Every achievement is linked with the risk and reward process. More the risk, the better is the reward. So, would you like to stay in your common life and live a mediocre life or would you like to live a dream life with some risks that would change it for good?
  • In your way to success are the two biggest barriers; Ego and blind spots: Ego prevents us from acknowledging our weaknesses. When we don't acknowledge our weaknesses, we hinder improvement in ourselves. There are always obstacles on your way which you did not figure out, these are blindspot barriers. You can't see all the obstacles and so you need a team of thoughtful people.
  •  A team of thoughtful people who could disagree with you on different things, have different views about things than you is what you needed to achieve great success. You can't do all things yourself, you need a team of good people for a fabulous success.
  • Big problems, pains are inevitable to the journey of big goals. They test your strength. They sort people. They want you to struggle and learn. They teach you good things that make you a better person. Weak people give up on their dreams and leave.
  • Success is not about achieving a single goal but it is a journey of achieving goals after goals. It is a journey that never ends. Care people beyond you and make them successful. 
  • Live by your own good principles that will help you in deciding what to do and that will give you the courage to do it.
  • If you're open-minded enough and determined then you can achieve anything you want but not everything, so prioritize your goals. Make mistakes but learn from them. If you only make mistakes but don't learn it is self-sabotage. 
  • There is always a good path and if you could not see it then take help from others. Take help from others where you're weak and achieve success.
  • You can get stronger where you're weak either by improving yourself or by taking help from stronger people. Be completely truthful and transparent.
  • Your life is divided into phases. In the first phase, you're dependent on others. In the 2nd phase, you have dependents. In the third phase, you help other people to be successful.