Ray Dalio Quotes

“Anyone you see succeeding is only succeeding at things you’re paying attention to.” They’re probably “also failing at lots of other things.”

“Decide what you really want in life by reconciling your goals and your desires.”

“Don’t blame bad outcomes on anyone but yourself.”

“Don’t confuse what you wish were true with what is really true.”

“Don’t let pain stand in the way of progress.”

“Don’t overweight first-order consequences relative to second- and third-order ones.”

“Don’t worry about looking good—worry instead about achieving your goals.”

“If you are open-minded enough and determined, you can get virtually anything you want.”

“Nature gave us pain as a messaging device to tell us that we are approaching, or that we have exceeded, our limits in some way.”

“Truth - more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality - is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.”

“View painful problems as potential improvements that are screaming at you.”

“Whatever your nature is, there are many paths that will suit you, so don’t fixate on just one. Should a particular path close, all you have to do is find another good one consistent with what you’re like.”

“1+1=3. Two people who collaborate well will be about three times as effective as each of them operating independently.”

“Above all else, I want you to think for yourself, to decide 1) what you want, 2) what is true and 3) what to do about it.”

“Any damn fool can make it complex. It takes a genius to make it simple.”

“Believe it or not, your pain will fade and you will have many other opportunities ahead of you.”

“Beware of statements that begin with 'I think that...'
Just because someone thinks something doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“Build the organization around goals rather than tasks.”

“Choose your habits well. Habit is probably the most powerful tool in your brain’s toolbox.”

“Closed-minded people don’t want their ideas challenged.”

“Don’t have anything to do with closed-minded people. Being open-minded is much more important than being bright or smart.”

“Don’t hire people just to fit the first job they will do; hire people you want to share your life with.”

“Don’t just pay attention to your job; pay attention to how your job will be done if you are no longer around.”

“Don’t let the little things divide you when your agreement on the big things should bind you.”

“Don’t mistake possibilities for probabilities. Anything is possible. It’s the probabilities that matter. Everything must be weighed in terms of its likelihood and prioritized.”

“Evaluate accurately, not kindly.”

“Even the richest people feel short of the money they need to do the things they want to do.”

“Every leader must decide between getting rid of liked but incapable people to achieve their goals and keeping the nice but incapable people and not achieving their goals.

Whether or not you can make these hard decisions is the strongest determinant of your own success.”

“Every time you confront something painful, you are at a potentially important juncture in your life—you have the opportunity to choose healthy and painful truth or unhealthy but comfortable delusion.”

“Experience taught me how invaluable it is to reflect on and write down my decision-making criteria whenever I made a decision, so I got in the habit of doing that.”