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The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).

Ray Dalio

If you can stare hard at your problems, they almost always shrink or disappear, because you almost always find a better way of dealing with them than if you don’t face them head on. The more difficult the problem, the more important it is that you stare at it and deal with it.
RAY DALIO

Deal Difficult Disappear Face Hard Problem Yourself
Most people have a hard time confronting their weaknesses in a really straightforward, evidence-based way. They also have problems speaking frankly to others. Some people love knowing about their weaknesses and mistakes and those of others because it helps them be so much better, while others can’t stand it.
RAY DALIO

Evidence Hard Time Mistake People Problem Stand Way Weakness
You should have a strategic asset allocation mix that assumes that you don’t know what the future is going to hold.
RAY DALIO

Assumption Future Hold Strategy Yourself
Constantly probe the people who report to you, and encourage them to probe you.
RAY DALIO

Encouragement People Yourself
Be wary of the arrogant intellectual who comments from the stands without having played on the field.
RAY DALIO

Arrogant Field Intellectual Play Pride Stand
When growth is slower than expected, stocks go down. When inflation is higher than expected, bonds go down. When inflation’s lower than expected, bonds go up.
RAY DALIO

Bond Expectation Growth Investment Marketing Slow
There are far more good answers “out there” than there are in you.
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Control Drive Inspirational Yourself
It all comes down to interest rates. As an investor, all you’re doing is putting up a lump-sump payment for a future cash flow.
RAY DALIO

Flow Future Interest Investment Pay Rate
Since the only way you are going to find solutions to painful problems is by thinking deeply about them – i.e., reflecting – if you can develop a knee-jerk reaction to pain that is to reflect rather than to fight or flee, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving.
RAY DALIO

Development Leadership Learning Pain Problem Solution Way Yourself
More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to their potential from those who don’t is a willingness to look at themselves and others objectively.
RAY DALIO

Live Object People Potential Willing
Some people who are creative are not reliable and vice versa; some see big pictures while others see details, etc. All of them are important to have on well-orchestrated teams.
RAY DALIO

Creation People Photograph Team Trust
Though how nature works is way beyond man’s ability to comprehend, I have found that observing how nature works offers innumerable lessons that can help us understand the realities that affect us.
RAY DALIO

Affect Beyond Lesson Nature Understand Way Work
An economy is not a complicated thing; it just has a lot of moving parts.
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Complication Economy Move
Meditation more than anything in my life was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.
RAY DALIO

Big Life Meditation Myself Success
If you don’t own Gold, you know neither history nor economics.
RAY DALIO

Economics History Yourself
I believe that we all get rewarded and punished according to whether we operate in harmony or in conflict with nature’s laws, and that all societies will succeed or fail in the degrees that they operate consistently with these laws.
RAY DALIO

Believe Consist Karma Law Myself Nature Punishment Reward Success
People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices.
RAY DALIO

Choice Confusion Creation Impossible People True
That’s what I mean by radical truth. I mean accepting reality.
RAY DALIO

Acceptance Myself Radiant Truth
Some people seek to understand, and some people seek to portray what they want to portray.
RAY DALIO

People Seek Understand
I can be stressed, or tired, and I can go into a meditation and it all just flows off of me. I’ll come out of it refreshed and centered and that’s how I’ll feel and it’ll carry through the day.
RAY DALIO

Carry Day Flow Meditation Myself
People who worry about looking good typically hide what they don’t know and hide their weaknesses, so they never learn how to properly deal with them and these weaknesses remain impediments in the future.
RAY DALIO

Future Goodness Hide People Proper Weakness Worry
Competitiveness is really what it costs you per man-hour to get you what you want. In other words, there’s an education level that plays into the mix and so if it’s inexpensive to buy an hour of real good education in places like China versus the U.S., that factors in.
RAY DALIO

Competition Cost Education Factor Goodness Place Reality Word
To test if you are worrying too much about looking good, observe how you feel when you find out you’ve made a mistake or don’t know something.
RAY DALIO

Appearance Goodness Mistake Observation Worry Yourself
I believe that for the most part, achieving success – whatever that is for you – is mostly a matter of personal choice and that, initially, making the right choices can be difficult.
RAY DALIO

Achievement Believe Choice Difficult
The big question is: When will the term structure of interest rates change? That’s the question to be worried about.
RAY DALIO

Change Interest Rate Structure Worry
I’m going to give away a lot more than half my money. I’d be happy to give that to the government if the government put together programs that were like I’m giving away to charity, in which I believe the money is effectively used to help people.
RAY DALIO

Believe Government Happiness Help Money Myself People
Remember that experience creates internalization. Doing things repeatedly leads to internalization, which produces a quality of understanding that is generally vastly superior to intellectualized learning.
RAY DALIO

Experience Intellectual Leadership Learning Production Quality Remember

The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).

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The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ray Dalio Quotes