Personality

Both Ray and I are independent thinkers that enjoy figuring things out for ourselves. We both use a direct and radically transparent communication style. Before Ray Dalio developed his Principles, he made some employees feel incompetent, unnecessary, and humiliated (the end of Chapter 4, Part 1 in his book, Principles). That was not his intention and he was actually thinking about the best interests of his employees. He did not have this problem with employees who believed that Ray was holding himself and his employees to high standards to achieve their common mission. Ray developed his Principles to explain his approach. Effective working relationships are based on the trust that we are serving the common mission and have the heart in the right place. If you don't think that I have your best interests at heart, you must point it out. We cannot work effectively as a team without this trust.