The biggest lesson from Ray Dalio’s Principles book is that failure leads to learning which leads to success. Success is an evolutionary process that starts with trying something new, experiencing pain, and learning from it. This formula summarizes it best: Pain + Reflection = Progress He goes even further than this with a 5-Step Process…
The Learning Log
Personal Productivity: Principles vs. Procedures
Ray Dalio’s book, Principles, is having a big influence on me. I am enjoying the process of writing out my own principles in an Evernote document I have labeled “@Principles.” Years ago I started doing something similar with procedures. I started documenting the step-by-step checklists I used to accomplish recurring tasks. For example, when I…
“Another One of Those” (Ray Dalio’s Principles)
One of the many repeated phrases in Ray Dalio’s Principles is “another one of those.” The idea is that every day you come across opportunities to make decisions that are just “another one of those.” In other words, there are situations that are similar to experiences you have encountered in the past and, therefore, you…
Your Story Must Have a Bad Guy
I wrote a short story during Christmas break about a little sheep who follows her shepherd to find Jesus in the manger. It wasn’t very good, but it gave me the chance to try and learn what I need to do to get better as a fiction writer. The biggest thing missing from the story,…
A Simple Approach to Networking Using Email
I don’t feel great about the idea of networking. I want to build relationships and I recognize that doing so will help me advance my mission, but the tactics people suggest just seem so selfish. I don’t want to use people for my own personal gain. I want to build relationships with people on a…
