You just cannot read this book fast.
I know lots of people have a distaste for books that pretend to show you the path to success. I guess they probably only encountered the ones with cheap quality. To me, people who have achieved something that no one did in prior time is interesting enough to draw me towards their thoughts. I mean how can you not get curious about the life lessons learned by legends?
Ray Dalio is pretty big in investment domain. It is hard to not pay attention to this name if you read finance news daily like me. However I had no idea of who he is or what kind of person he is before picking up this book. All I know was he created Bridgewater and Bridgewater has some weird company culture that everything needs to be done in absolute transparency.
The book started with a general description of Ray's life experience in chronical order. But mainly he talked about his story with Bridgewater. He started Bridgewater from a young age at his own apartment. He then started to use algorithms (very basic ones initially) to analyze markets. While growing his business bigger and himself more experienced, he became too confident with his judgment. This led to his epic failure in the 80s which almost made his family live without a roof. Then he carefully and incrementally grew his business back again. Now Bridgewater is one of the most successful investment companies.
I have a sense of what to expect when seeing the title "Principles". We cannot indulge ourselves if we want to achieve something, which surely is one type of principles we need to adhere. But reading other people's commitment and their paths to the goal still amazes me. I had to stop very often to reflect on my own experience (often with guilt) to understand where I am and how I can apply his ideas to my own situation. The ability to focus, to remain objective and rational, as well as time management skills, are all lacking in me. The fact that I am aware of these issues but have not reacted to them with fierce determination of obliterating them makes me quite anxious. Am I hopeless?
Now the problem turns into a debate of what motivates me, or what can motivate me. It may appear to be too aloof to our subject as we should never have to link the purpose of life to a time management problem such as not sleeping enough. But here I am--not quite oriented about what I am going to do tomorrow and wasting time on social media late at night.
The proposition I made earlier about forging habits still remains fresh. I pause my reading and try to figure out what I am up to. I used to think that I have strong competition sense. And now I do not even want to think about having a relationship and starting my own family anymore--they are so distant that they don't feel real. Do I actually want to follow that path?
I hate to end a note without an ending message. But I do not have any answer to the questions I posed to myself. What motivates me? What drives me to chase my goals?
Do you ask yourself these questions my reader?