Principles: Life and Work

Principles are like laws—you can’t break one simply because you and someone else agree to break it. Remember that it’s everyone’s obligation to speak up, own it, or get out.

Knowing and acting on the truth is what we call the “big deal” at Bridgewater.

Remember that every story has another side. Wisdom is the ability to see both sides and weigh them appropriately.

Look at the patterns of your mistakes and identify at which step in the 5-Step Process you typically fail.

Distinguish between you as the designer of your machine and you as a worker with your machine.

People who achieve success and drive progress deeply understand the cause-effect relationships that govern reality and have principles for using them to get what they want.

Remember to reflect when you experience pain.

We are incapable of designing and building a mosquito, let alone all the species and most of the other things in the universe. So I start from the premise that nature is smarter than I am and try to let nature teach me how reality works.