“For the most part, life gives you so many decisions to make and so many opportunities to recover from your mistakes that, if you handle them well, you can have a terrific life. Of course, sometimes there are major influences on the quality of our lives that come from things beyond our control—the circumstances we are born into, accidents and illnesses, and so forth—but for the most part even the worst circumstances can be made better with the right approach. For example, a friend of mine dove into a swimming pool, hit his head, and became a quadriplegic. But he approached his situation well and became as happy as anybody else, because there are many paths to happiness.” LifeHappinessOpportunityDecisionMistakePathApproachTerrificCircumstanceRecover Book:Principles: Life and Work Source: Principles: Life and Work
“So I learned that the people who make the most of the process of encountering reality, especially the painful obstacles, learn the most and get what they want faster than people who do not. ... In short, I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted.” PeopleWantRealityWantedProcessMistakeMovementWeaknessRatePainfulObstaclesImprovementFasterTruthfulRapids Author:Ray Dalio
“I believe that our society's "mistake-phobia" is crippling, a problem that begins in most elementary schools, where we learn to learn what we are taught rather than to form our own goals and to figure out how to achieve them. We are fed with facts and tested and those who make the fewest mistakes are considered to be the smart ones, so we learn that it is embarrassing to not know and to make mistakes. Our education system spends virtually no time on how to learn from mistakes, yet this is critical to real learning.” KnowsLifeBelieveRealFactsProblemSchoolFormI BelieveGoalGrowthMistakeAchieveFiguresTaughtSmartPersonal GrowthInvestingCriticalMaking MistakesOur SocietyFedsEmbarrassingTestedLearning From MistakesEducation SystemElementary SchoolPhobia Author:Ray Dalio
“I learned that everyone makes mistakes and has weaknesses and that one of the most important things that differentiates people is their approach to handling them. I learned that there is an incredible beauty to mistakes, because embedded in each mistake is a puzzle, and a gem that I could get if I solved it, i.e. a principle that I could use to reduce my mistakes in the future.” PeopleIfsLifeImportantUseGrowthMistakePrinciplesApproachWeaknessImportant ThingsPersonal GrowthIncrediblesInvestingMaking MistakesPuzzlesEmbeddedGemsMy MistakesDifferentiateEveryone Makes Mistakes Author:Ray Dalio
“Do not feel bad about your mistakes or those of others. Love them! Remember that one: they are to be expected; two: they're the first and most essential part of the learning process; and three: feeling bad about them will prevent you from getting better.” LifeFeelsFirstsTwoFeelingsRememberThreeProcessGrowthMistakeEssentialsPersonal GrowthInvestingExpectedGet BetterLearning ProcessFeeling Bad Author:Ray Dalio
“To test if you are worrying too much about looking good, observe how you feel when you find out you've made a mistake or don't know something.” IfsKnowsLifeFeelsMadeGrowthMistakeWorryToo MuchTestsPersonal GrowthInvestingLooking GoodMade A MistakeHow You FeelWorrying Too Much Author:Ray Dalio
“I've learned that each mistake was probably a reflection of something that I was (or others were) doing wrong, so if I could figure out what that was, I could learn how to be more effective.” IfsLifeGrowthMistakeFiguresReflectionPersonal GrowthInvestingI've LearnedIf I Could Author:Ray Dalio
“Most people have a hard time confronting their weaknesses in a really straightforward, evidence-based way. They also have problems speaking frankly to others. Some people love knowing about their weaknesses and mistakes and those of others because it helps them be so much better, while others can't stand it.” PeopleWayHardHelpingProblemMistakeKnowingWeaknessEvidenceHard TimesStraightforwardConfronting Author:Ray Dalio
“When I say I believe in radical truth and radical transparency, all I mean is we take things that ordinarily people would hide, and we put them on the table, particularly mistakes, problems, and weaknesses. We put those on the table, and we look at them together. We don't hide them.” PeopleBelieveLooksMeanProblemTogetherI BelieveMistakeWeaknessTablesI Believe InRadicalTransparency Author:Ray Dalio
“The expression I use: Pain + Reality = Progress. Whenever I would have a painful mistake, I started to view that as puzzles that would give me gems if I could solve the puzzle. So, it made me thoughtful - what should I do differently next time? That was the puzzle. And the gem was some principle for handling the same thing when it came along again, and then I would write it down. And by writing it down and referring to it, and also being able to show it to other people so that we could agree that that was a good way of handling that thing - that was very, very powerful.” PeopleGivingWritingRealityPainPowerfulMistakeProgressAgreePainfulThoughtfulNext TimePuzzlesVery PowerfulGems Author:Ray Dalio
“For every mistake that you learn from you will save thousands of similar mistakes in the future, so if you treat mistakes as learning opportunities that yield rapid improvements you should be excited by them. But if you treat them as bad things, you will make yourself and others miserable, and you won't grow.” IfsLifeShouldOpportunityGrowsMistakeTreatsPersonal GrowthInvestingExcitedImprovementMiserableBad ThingsYieldRapids Author:Ray Dalio
“The biggest mistake investors make is to believe that what happened in the recent past is likely to persist. They assume that something that was a good investment in the recent past is still a good investment. Typically, high past returns simply imply that an asset has become more expensive and is a poorer, not better, investment.” BelieveStillsPastMistakeHappenedReturnAssumingInvestmentInvestingExpensiveAssetsInvestorsPersistBiggest MistakeRecent Past Author:Ray Dalio
“Demand is best measured in terms of spending. You know, I think in traditional economics, it's a mistake to measure it in terms of the quantity of goods.” ThinkingKnowsTermMistakeDemandEconomicsSpendingTraditionalGoodsQuantity Author:Ray Dalio
