Ray Dalio on Excellence Quotes

"Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones."

"I just want to be right—I don’t care if the right answer comes from me."

"Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes and unacceptable not to learn from them."

"Evolution is the single greatest force in the universe; it is the only thing that is permanent and it drives everything."

"Design a machine to achieve your goal."

"Successful people are those who can go above themselves to see things objectively."

"Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life."

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

"A great organization has both great people and a great culture."

"Struggle is the process by which you get stronger."

"I learned that if you work hard and creatively, you can have just about anything you want, but not everything you want."

"The most important thing is that you develop your own principles and ideally write them down."

"An idea meritocracy is the best system for making great decisions."

"Weaknesses don’t matter if you find solutions to them."

"Meditation has been the single most important reason for whatever success I’ve had."

"Look for people who have lots of great questions. Smart people are the ones who ask the most thoughtful questions."

"Excellence comes from having a clear goal and the discipline to follow the process."

"Truth—or, more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality—is the essential foundation for any good outcome."

"The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you’ll be."

"Radical open-mindedness and radical transparency are invaluable for rapid learning and effective change."

"To have an idea meritocracy, you need to do three things: put your honest thoughts on the table, have thoughtful disagreement, and abide by agreed-upon ways of getting past disagreement."

"To be effective you must not let your need to be right be more important than your need to find out what's true."

"Triangulate your view with believable people who are willing to disagree."

"Don’t worry about looking good; worry about achieving your goal."

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline."

"People who worry about looking good typically hide what they don’t know and hide their weaknesses."

"The biggest mistake most people make is to not see themselves and others objectively."

"If you're not failing, you're not pushing your limits, and if you're not pushing your limits, you're not maximizing your potential."

"Whatever you want, you can get it if you go about it the right way."

"The quality of your life depends on the quality of your decisions."

"Pain + Reflection = Progress."

"If you don't look back at yourself and think, 'Wow, how stupid I was a year ago,' then you must not have learned much in the last year."

"Think for yourself while being radically open-minded at the same time."