This series of articles seeks to examine the character attributes of highly successful leaders, regardless of their adherence to a strong faith or moral standard. In presenting these thoughts, Leadership Ministries is not agreeing with or advocating these traits or practices, but rather presents these as ideas for discussion and development in your own leadership journey.
Ray Dalio (1949 - ) is an American billionaire. He is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and has run it since 1975. Dalio is the author of Principles of Life and Work, a 2017 New York Times bestselling book on corporate management and investment philosophy. As of 2025, Dalio is estimated to be worth $19.9 billion, ranking him as one of the richest people in the world. His firm has more than $92 billion in assets under management.[1]
Dalio was born in New York and grew up doing various odd jobs, from mowing laws to shoveling snow. He began caddying at a local golf course for many Wall Street professionals. One friend he met on the course gave him a summer job at a trading firm. By age 12 he had made his first investment, and in high school his portfolio was worth several thousand dollars. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance at Long Island University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Following graduation, Dalio worked as a clerk at the New York Stock Exchange.
Embracing reality. Dalio writes to “Face the world as it is, not as you wish it to be.” He encourages the reader to “accept uncomfortable truths and use them as data for better understanding and action.” Dalio built his firm to invest around current economic trends, such as exchange rates, inflation and GDP growth. Dalio’s company predicted the 2008 economic crisis, and their strategy saw significant returns during the period, even as other companies floundered or folded altogether. His understanding of the dynamics at pla
Overall, the Dalio family has donated more than $5 billion to his Dalio Foundation, and the foundation has given out more than $1 billion in charitable grants. In April 2011, Dalio and his wife joined the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate more than half his fortune to charitable causes within his lifetime.[2] Dalio wrote, “I learned that if you work hard and creatively, you can have just about anything you want, but not everything you want. Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones.”
Learning from mistakes. Dalio wrote, “Mistakes are not failures but opportunities to learn.” He also coined the formula “Pain + Reflection = Progress.” While Dalio has stated that capitalism is generally the best economic system, he has argued that it needs to be reformed. Dalio also has warned about the emergence of China as a global economic superpower. Though he puts much faith in his investment strategies, Dalio is irreligious, and practices transcendental meditation.
Dalio postulates that truth often comes from painful experiences. He wrote, “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.” He believes that “Truth—more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality—is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.”
Effective decision-making. In his book, Dalio introduced believability-weighted decision making, which is weight opinions based on credibility and track record, not hierarchy. He likes to surround himself with inquisitive people. He wrote, “Look for people who have lots of great questions. Smart people are the ones who ask the most thoughtful questions, as opposed to thinking they have all the answers. Great questions are a much better indicator of future success than great answers.” He also believes, “Listening to uninformed people is worse than having no answers at all.”
To be effective, Dalio believes, “…you must not let your need to be right be more important than your need to find out what’s true. If you are too proud of what you know or of how good you are at something you will learn less, make inferior decisions, and fall short of your potential.”[3]
Dalio and his wife, Barbara, have four sons. Their oldest son died in a car accident in 2020. His philanthropy centers on teachers and education and public health. He is also founder of OceanX, a nonprofit marine research organization that maps and explores uncharted regions of the oceans.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/raymond-t-dalio/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5289593.Ray_Dalio
Cover photo: Harry Murphy/Web Summit via Sportsfile, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English Apologist. His sharp writing style made him a prominent figure in earth twentieth century literature. Among his works were Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.