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Principles

By: Ray Dalio
Narrated by: Ray Dalio,Jeremy Bobb
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Editorial reviews

From his business and his personal life, American billionaire Ray Dalio puts all his success down to basic principles—and now he wants you to benefit from his wisdom.

If you think you know exactly what to expect from a personal development audiobook, then think again. Despite earning billions as one of the financial world’s most successful hedge fund managers, Dalio doesn’t expect you to simply take his word on how to achieve wealth, power and all that comes with it. Instead, he’s worked to uncover the underlying principles which have helped him build his way to the top and put them to the test in a range of scenarios. In this listen, he’s only offering up what’s been proven effective.

With transparency and authenticity, Dalio holds nothing back in this deep dive into his personal and business life. Dalio also sheds light on the processes he used to uncover his principles and to maximise his efforts. When coupled with clear, authoritative narration from the author himself and American actor Jeremy Bobb (The Knick), there's no better audiobook to support you through your career and beyond.

Publisher's Summary

Ray Dalio, one of the world's most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he's developed, refined, and used over the past 40 years to create unique results in both life and business - and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.

In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater's exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as "an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency". It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio - who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood - that he believes are the reason behind his success.

In Principles, Dalio shares what he's learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book's hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of "radical truth" and "radical transparency", include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams. He also describes the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life, such as creating "baseball cards" for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses and employing computerized decision-making systems to make believability-weighted decisions. While the book brims with novel ideas for organizations and institutions, Principles also offers a clear, straightforward approach to decision making that Dalio believes anyone can apply, no matter what they're seeking to achieve.

Here, from a man who has been called both "the Steve Jobs of investing" and "the philosopher king of the financial universe" (CIO magazine), is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you'll find in the conventional business press.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 Ray Dalio (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

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Management consultant soup, not for investors

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

A small business growing into a medium size business may appreciate the exhausting list of principles.

Would you ever listen to anything by Ray Dalio again?

If he releases his investing principles, as promised, I'd be very interested. Most buyers would be shocked to hear that this 'investing great' does not write much about investing in this very long book.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Ray Dalio narrates half the book but a backup narrator is left to churn through a lot of the repetitive sounding chapters.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointing because Ray Dalio has presented his organisational principles and held back on his investing strategies. He posits that to emulate his investing success, others should consider following his work principles. This is most likely an illusion of causality. It is more likely a coincidence that he has been wildly successful in picking market moves as well as instituted a certain type of management, not because of it.

Any additional comments?

Ray Dalio trumpets radical transparency and openness to feedback which is why i don't feel insubordinate in labelling his manuscript a misguided and futile contribution. Ray, you're a legend because of your investing, not your management. Just read your mixed Glassdoor reviews.

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15 people found this helpful

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Too lengthy, internal code for BridgeWater's staff

The book can be cut to one-tenth in volume without losing much detail.
The gist of the book is about how the author sees his organizstion as a machine with people as its parts. The principles given in this regard are blueprints without much delving into reasoning. Mostly useful as a code of conduct and practice for BridgeWater people.
I expected much more from this book.

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13 people found this helpful

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AMAZING BOOK

This book was awesome. Great to hear and listen to someone that has had great financial success talk about principles. I would love to be in Ray Dalio inner circle. So much wisdom and knowledge that you can learn from. I'm developing my own principles now while also noting down Rays. Awesome book and many thanks for writing this gem.

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8 people found this helpful

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Complicated data subsets

Would you try another book written by Ray Dalio or narrated by Ray Dalio and Jeremy Bobb ?

Maybe if it was about his trading

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The five steps in achieving success are good

Any additional comments?

Overall its just too complicated. There are five goals....or is it seven.....or is it ten....each of them has subset bits of info ie goal 1.1, with then further subset info ie goal 1.1a, then further ie goal 1.1a,1-24.

I ended up getting the kindle book so I could keep track of it all. That was just as complicated only now I could see the full extent of it.

For those who can approach life like an algorithmic trading plan, this book is for you; it's a kind of life algorithm, which, if you can implement it, guarantees success.

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7 people found this helpful

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Overhyped

Great attempt to distil underlying principles, unfortunately surprisingly irrelevant outside of this kind of organisational structure and area of business.

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4 people found this helpful

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good for business owners

really good if you are looking to setup a business with 20-20,000 employees. I personally felt it was a bit culty and didn't like it.

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A great perspective

I found this book very insightful. Ive always wanted to gain a perspective from Ray Dalio so it was great to hear him personally narrate aspects of the book - it felt very authentic. The ideameratocricacy is a great way of structuring an organisation i wish i could work at Bridgwater to see what its like and if it aligns with the way i think (i reckon it might). I recommend this book to any professional leader who wants to improve their understanding of the world or their decision making ability. Thank you Ray!

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Life Changing

So easy and logic to understand. Ray is a legend. Thanks for this. Cheers from Sydney, Aus

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A guide on management; not investing

This book is well written and Ray Dalio has a nice, soothing voice. Very easy to listen to.

The book is split into two parts: His Auto-Biography and Principles regarding life and work.

In his Auto-biography there is really nothing much to learn. The most salient features in this section is mainly him riding Chinese leaders. Its pretty standard 20th century historical knowledge. He does have a decent writing style that has a persuasive undertone, probably why this book has such high ratings.

In his Principles regarding life and work, they feel like recycled ideas. They are often principles echoed by other authors such as Dale Carnegie, and they often elaborate upon these ideas much more effectively. Furthermore, the examples he implants are only relevant to areas of finance, rather out of touch. E.g, bad at accounting? Hire an accountant! Find the right people to do your job! etc. He also does not seem to fully grasp how psychology fully works, latching upon faulty indicators. Although he has dabbled in it to be a more effective person.

Overall, I would only recommend this book to people starting businesses? If you really want? Because nothing really stands out to truly make me truly enjoy this book. Its, ok.

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Awesome :)

Hats off to Ray Dallo for helping advance humanity by sharing his lifelong learnings. Thank you

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