How You Can Succeed Through Uncertainty and Spark Innovation

Many of us go through our lives largely on autopilot, relying mainly on our long held tried-and-true methods of behavior and beliefs. While this may be comfortable to us, what do we do when a new situation arises? What about when we have a problem we’ve never encountered before? In these situations we have to seek out new information and discomfort and the more often we do this on our own, the more comfortable and creative we will become.

Fortunately, (as we have discussed many times on the show) we are not as rigid as some might believe. The power to change is always in our hands. If we’re willing to surrender our obsession with certainty and face risk and new challenges with courage and intention, then an infinite number of possibilities lies ahead of us, forging a path through lands previously thought impassable.

 So how can we intentionally step out of our comfort zone and approach new challenges and issues with a creative mind? This week’s guest is here to explain how…

The Imagination Gap and Five Key Elements

“Risk is the will to act on imagination. If you can’t risk something – to try something for a better way – how are you ever going to get out of situations.” – Beth Comstock 

Beth Comstock is a business executive with a deep history of leading large companies to success through innovation and new opportunities. Beth is currently a director at Nike, and author of the best-selling book Imagine it Forward - Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change. In her career, she has mastered creativity, including how to cultivate and apply it.

Beth discusses how our quest for certainty becomes a dead-end. Complete certainty is unattainable and chasing it prevents us from discovering possibilities that exists on paths of risk and creativity. She discusses what she calls “The Imagination Gap”, which is a place where possibility and options for the future go to die when we’re looking for certainty.

Beth advocates taking and seeking necessary risk, the situations which require us to do new things to move forward. She suggests five key elements for generating creativity…

1. Give yourself permission to try new things in new ways. - The only way to achieve new results is to try new things. If you struggle with this, try an exercise in fear setting to see things more clearly and assess the risks of the action you may be considering.

2. Everyone must make room for discovery. - If you’re a leader, finding new roads and discovering and experimenting with new ways to do something is not a task you delegate. This is something that leads to tremendous growth and new information. Beth argues this exercise is worth your time no matter where you are in a corporate hierarchy.

3. Invite conflict and respectful debate from outside perspectives. - Many of us see conflict as something to be avoided. Sure, don’t seek out a scenario where you plan to end up screaming at a co-worker or partner but invite outside views on issues, problems, and welcome spirited debate.

4. Harness the power of your story, mission, and strategy. - As we’ve discussed before it’s important to create your own personal philosophy and story. Use these as guiding lights when generating creativity but don’t let them handcuff you.

5. Create a space for experimentation. - Create a space where you can do a lot of experimentation, test and learn from new kinds of partners, new initiatives, seed small projects, and that's a lot of what I ended up speaking to them about, about ways to create accountability, focus on the experiments, be able to take risk and fail in things.

 Re-Invention: Get Good at Change and Become Adaptable

“If you’re really rigid, you cannot keep up with the pace and disruptive nature of change.” – Beth Comstock

 At the heart of Beth’s philosophy of re-invention is a practice of adaptation. However, more successful people are less likely to change their ways, while those who have nothing to lose are more willing to take huge risks. Which is unfortunate because in the face of technology’s progress towards AI and automation, some of the most important skills one can posses are creativity, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving.

Her practice of adaptation requires delegating your mind and time to adapting, with a focus on altering your mindset from being fixed to open. Beth’s primary suggestion is to make room for discovery and get out into the world, which provides many benefits:

• See new and weird things.

• Go to places that challenge and contradict your beliefs.

• Learn, ask, connect, and discover patterns.

Going on Threes: She shares her technique of “Going on Threes”, which involves jotting down notes each time she sees something interesting. She simply marks it down the first time she sees it; the second time she asks if it is a coincidence; and the third time she declares it a trend and finds out how to learn more about it.

 10% of Your Time for New Things: She urges people to allocate a small amount of their time for trying new things. This can be a simple as driving a new route to work or picking up a magazine you have never read before. Doing something you would never do is a great way to discover a new perspective about the world. 

 “Open yourself up, go to where things are different or weird, and understand what you can start to learn.” – Beth Comstock 

Social Courage and the Power of Small Challenges

“Courage you have to have to connect with others, to open yourself up, to make genuine connections, and to put yourself out there.” – Beth Comstock

 Beth shares the story of her personal challenge being an introvert in the word of business, where making connections is oftentimes a critical component for success. She challenged herself with a series of progressively more difficult tasks which would make her more comfortable and familiar connecting to other people, despite how awkward it was.

Her story relates to a common theme in our podcasts: The Power of Small Challenges (such as Rejection Therapy). This is a technique which serves to build up our immunity to discomfort, embarrassment, and rejection all by forcing us to face things which are unfamiliar to us. This is the essence of becoming adaptable.

 ‘No’ is Often ‘Not Yet’: Beth brings up the notion of “Gatekeepers” in our lives (and our own heads), which are those who prevent us from progressing. They embody the fearful notion of “I don’t want a better way. I feel threatened by a better way or imaginative thinking.” The ‘No’ delivered by the Gatekeeps forces us to either abandon the idea or adapt our approach, try something new, and improve where necessary, which makes it a ‘Not Yet’.

Viewing ‘No’ as ‘Not Yet’ allows for a creative solution to emerge, but there are a few things you must do:

• You can’t wait for someone else’s permission to act on your imagination.

• Find people who see your vision.

• Get feedback, find fallacies, and improve your pitch.

• Wait for the right time, if it isn’t now. 

 Go Boldly into the Unknown: Beth opens her book by discussing a tough time in her life, her divorce. She talks about how she needed to take hold of her own story and create her path. Many of us wait for the perfect time or the perfect situation, but it isn’t going to happen, so she advocates for turning off auto-pilot and just going for it.

She proceeds to discuss the benefits of constraints for creative thinking, where the constraints create a framework within which we have freedom. First, we must ask ourselves, “How can I solve this creatively?” Then, all we must do is start. Wherever you are—just start!

 Build Bridges, Not Walls 

Many people view themselves as being against others, not personally, but as one team versus another. This mindset creates walls between you and them, which weakens you. The alternative is to bridge the gap between these differences, which allows for a sharing of resources and the creation of a team superior to any individual.

Beth suggests forming a bridge between the New and the Traditional, facilitating communication to ensure everyone is on the same page, maintaining a shared sense of humanity between everyone, and bringing in outsiders with authority and expertise. All of these bring the team together, unified against a shared problem.

 Invite in your Critics: Beth then advocates inviting in your critics to help show you where you’re wrong. The best ideas are shared, so don’t attempt to hoard ideas because you want the credit and you’re afraid someone might steal it. By saying, “I need help”, you invite feedback and criticism which will help you address issues you are overlooking and provide new perspectives you wouldn’t uncover yourself.

This harsh advice might help you keep up with competitors or prevent you from pursuing a bad idea. By inviting feedback from your team, you can ensure you’re talking about the same problem; you can reframe the problem and refresh your perspective.

“Tell me something I don’t want to hear, because usually I need to hear it and I probably know it’s true but I’m just avoiding it.” – Beth Comstock

 Acknowledge Reality: Many people and teams fall into the trap of viewing things as the way they wish they were instead of how they are. This can prevent them from making changes necessary for their success. Beth illustrates this idea by bringing up people who wear lucky clothes for fear of failure, then blame their superstitions instead of their inadequacies when they don’t succeed.

A lack of honesty will hold you back, while competitors charge forward. Fortunately, inviting feedback and criticism will help illuminate a lot of these fantasies before they have time to cause any damage. They can prevent us from deluding ourselves into thinking that things are the way that we want them to be or the way that they “should” be instead of the way that they really are.

“Am I seeing things that are opportunities that I can actually shape or am I hanging on to something that’s a superstition or just a comfortable way of viewing it and it’s preventing me from going forward.” – Beth Comstock

 Small Steps to Become More Creative

In closing, Beth provides a few small steps for us to improve our creativity and urges us to “Just start!” because that’s all it takes.

1.     Ask yourself, “What’s one thing I want to move forward on?”

2.     Ask yourself, “What’s holding me back?”

3.     Then write yourself a permission slip to do it.

Why The Brain Thrives on What It Fears Most

Everything we do in life we do to decrease uncertainty — Beau Lotto

Your perception of the world, life, yourself and others affects each and every decision you have ever made, or ever will make. Neuroscientist Beau Lotto has devoted much of his work to understanding perception, creativity, biases, and much more. He is the author of the book Deviate, which reveals startling truths about the brain and it’s perceptions. Beau argues that the next big innovation in the world is not a new technology, but rather a new way of seeing. 

For A Deep Dive on Your Most Common Biases Check Out — http://www.successpodcast.com/weaponsofinfluence

Uncertainty of what your brain is receiving can lead to extreme consequences. Let’s take a simple example from Beau…

When you go down below in a boat and your eyes are moving and registering the boat, and your eyes are saying, “Oh, we’re standing still,” but your inner ears are saying, “No, no, we’re moving.” And your brain cannot deal with that conflict so it gets ill. — Beau Lotto

While getting a little seasick is not the end of the world the consequences of too much uncertainty can be tremendous. Too much uncertainty increases brain cell death. It decreases plasticity in the brain and transforms you into a more extreme version of yourself. 

Think back to a time when you had to deal with extreme uncertainty. Was this a pleasant experience? Oftentimes when we are making extreme changes to our lives such as changing careers, moving to a new place, trying something potentially dangerous for the first time we see a drop in our health and mental state. This is because our brains are deeply wired to avoid this type of uncertainty at every turn. 

Every minute of every day we are making hundreds of assumptions, which helps us mentally avoid uncertainty. As I type this I assume the chair I am sitting on will not give way and leave me sprawled out on the floor. I assume the desk in front of me was assembled correctly, I assume the keyboard on which I am typing will continue to work, and so on and so forth. 

These assumptions are absolutely critical to our survival. Can you imagine what a nervous wreck we’d be if I stopped to make sure my chair was sturdy each minute. First of all I’d never finish writing this article but even worse I would most likely worry myself into no longer using this chair, checking the screws on my desk, and monitoring the battery life of my keyboard. 

However, these assumptions can largely be a double edged sword themselves. Our brains are wired to take what is meaningless and assign it meaning. Look at the flip side, in the early development of human beings if I assumed that rustling sound was not a predator and it turned out to be a panther… it’s too late. I’m dead. Taking this information and all the inputs around you and assigning them meaning is the process of creating your own perceptions. The key is to be able to determine what can be assumed and what it worth checking out and worrying about. 

Here’s the kicker. 

If we do everything to avoid uncertainty, how will we ever see anything differently?

We do almost everything to avoid uncertainty. And yet the irony is that that’s the only place we can go if we’re ever going to see differently. — Beau Lotto

How would we ever be creative if we never dared to venture into the uncertainty of life? How would we learn to perceive the world differently through new information if all we did was avoid uncertainty our entire lives. Creativity begins with a question, a hypothesis, it begins with a “why?” or a “what if?” all which come through uncertainty. 

This is also why it’s an interesting reaction when people become mad at one another for “flip-flopping” their opinions. Too often, especially in politics, individuals are criticized for changing their opinions to reflect new facts, new evidence, and new information. But how can we ever hope to grow and draw new conclusions if we ignore the uncertainty of new facts and opinions. 

The irony of uncertainty is that while we were undoubtably hardwired to avoid it, it holds the key to our growth and to our success. As we noted, too much uncertainty for too long a period can have drastic consequences for your health but avoiding it altogether leaves one walking in place. 

Lessons and Tools From Spy Recruiters, Astronauts, and Mental Masters

We’ve interviewed some incredible guests on The Science of Success. From many walks of life including spy recruiters, astronauts, bestselling authors, and more. Across each of our guest’s from widely different fields, we see many overlapping mindsets, strategies, and practices for achieving goals and a more effective life.

We’d like to share with you some of these mindset and strategies to help you achieve your goals. Whatever they may be…

Focus On Your Health

Psychology Secrets of Extreme Athletes, NFL Teams, & The World’s Top Performer with Dr. Michael Gervais — Dr.Michael Gervais has spent years and countless hours in the trenches with high performers. From Red Bull athletes and The Seattle Seahawks to everyday civilians, Gervais has been able to unlock the true potential of his clients by utilizing the psychology of high performance.

What’s Life’s Biggest Trap We Fall Into? — In Matt Bodnar’s widely popular and upvoted Quora answer he takes us through some of the biggest traps people fall into in life and how we can avoid each to get out of our own way in 2018.

The Skeptic’s Guide To Meditation with Dan Harris — Learn more about meditation and the science behind the practice. Dan Harris takes you through his personal journey (including a panic attack live on air) that led him to pursue meditation and report of the science behind the sometimes “woo woo” reputation.

The Neuroscience Behind Building A Sustainable Healthy Lifestyle with Foodist Darya Rose — Sticking to a diet plan can be very, very hard. Darya Rose takes us through how we can set the right physical health goals and use neuroscience to actually stick to them.

Overcome Your Fears

How Do You Become Mentally Strong? — In this Medium article Matt Bodnar take us through an incredible framework for developing mental toughness. Compiling and exploring some of the most validated strategies and tactics to push yourself and grow.

How This Astronaut Survived Going Blind In Space & Tools For Crushing Fear with Chris Hadfield — Chris Hadfield is one of the most decorated astronauts in history. On his first spacewalk he went momentarily blind and was able to remain calm and complete his mission. Chris takes us through some practical knowledge for overcoming irrational fears and accepting others.

Your Secret Weapon To Becoming Fearless with Jia Jiang — Most people actively will avoid rejection. How is this fear holding you back? Jia decided to actively seek rejection each day for 100 days and while his journey is very entertaining, the results he saw were very impactful.

Master Your Emotions

Discover Your Hidden Emotional Insights and What’s Truly Valuable to You with Dr. Susan David — Your emotions are there to communicate through your subconscious. By using Dr.Susan David’s framework and research you can begin to learn how listening to these emotions and using them as a compass can help you make peace with them and achieve more.

The Mental Tools Olympians, Traders, and Top Performers Use To Make High Pressure Decisions with Denise Shull — Denise Shull was the inspiration for Wendy Rhodes character on the Showtime show Billions. She’s coached countless high performers through high pressure situations by using their emotions and inner working to guide them. Find out how!

Get What You Want

Simple Strategies You Can Use To Get Anything You Want with The Godfather of Influence Dr. Robert Cialdini — Dr.Cialdini has been doing incredible work on the art of influence for years. Most recently he unveiled a researched backed tactic that you can begin to use today to help you influence anyone and make a great first impression.

How To Use Influence Tactics Like an FBI Agent — In this article from SUCCESS Magazine we highlight some of the key takeaways from all the military influence experts we’ve interviewed. Everyone from hostage negotiators to FBI Spy recruiters. Learn how you can begin to influence like a secret agent today!

Connect With Others

Never Eat Alone — How Relationship Expert Keith Ferrazzi Built His World Class Network — Keith Ferrazzi literally wrote the book on networking. Through his work and research in relationship building, Keith has identified mindsets and frameworks that you should apply to every interaction and relationship.

Proven Practices for Building The Ultimate Competitive Advantage with Todd Davis — Todd Davis is the Chief People Officer at Franklin Covey and wrote much of the company’s award-winning material. Todd takes us through several ways to build better relationships at work from all hierarchies and how to build the ultimate competitive advantage.

Build The Right Habits

Break Your Phone Addiction (and Your Other Bad Habits) with Charles Duhigg — Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and has devoted much of his life and work to discovering why we do the things we do. Specifically how our habits and routines can affect our lives for the better and for the worse. Learn how we can become the masters of our own habits today!

How You Can Use Behavior Design To Create any Habit You Want with Nir Eyal — Nir Eyal has worked with hundreds of companies to make their products more habit forming. From video games themselves to products that pull you back in such as Facebook and Instagram it’s all by design and has Nir’s fingerprints or framework all over it. Learn how you can use Nir’s framework to break your cycle and create the habits you want!

What Makes Billionaire Ray Dalio So Special?

His accomplishments in the markets have made him one of the wealthiest American’s today. But if you begin to dive deeper you realize that’s not what makes Ray so special…

At The Science of Success, we obsess over Evidence Based Growth and learning what makes peak performers and titans of their crafts tick. Through examining their lives and work, we can take years of their experiences and research and apply what they’ve learned to our own lives. Thus, leading happier, healthier, and (hopefully) wealthier lives.

So… what makes Ray Dalio so special?

The Obvious

For the sake of the rest of this article let’s go ahead and knock out the obvious. Ray started and continues to grow the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Bridgewater currently has over $160 Billion (with a B!) worth of assets under management.

This has lead to Ray himself amassing a net worth of over $17.7 Billion. This amount of wealth and drive obviously make him a “special” person in business. He has attained a status and created a life that most can only dream about, filled with the things many only ever see on their vision boards.

BUT…

As with most incredible individuals and stories, this is just the WHAT of the situation. The HOW and the WHY behind Ray’s journey. The way he continues to approach life and the lessons he’s learned (and is still learning) is what makes him truly unique.

Credit: The Times

His First Job

Ray was born the only child of a jazz musician and a homemaker in Jackson Heights, Queens in 1949. Ray notes that at a young age, he was a terrible student and struggled in school.

“I was a bad student. I have a bad rote memory , and I didn’t like studying.” — Ray Dalio

Like many geniuses of their time who did not thrive in a classroom setting, Ray found other ways to contribute, learn, and make money. From the age of 12, he caddied at a local golf club near his home that was frequented by Wall Street investors. By listening to their tips and conversations Ray was able to begin learning about the stock market and made his first purchase of stock ever, investing in Northeastern Airlines.

Shortly after, Northeastern Airlines was taken over by another company and Ray saw his investment triple. What makes Ray’s beginnings unique is that despite not thriving within the traditional framework of education, he was able to find another way to absorb information. Continuing to learn about things that interested him, and put these learnings into action.

We see this time and again with several great young minds. Unable or unwilling to work within the confines of a traditional education, they find other ways to learn.

The golf course was near his childhood home, lucky. Those who frequented the course exposed him to Wall Street, lucky. Being taken under Donald Scott’s wing, lucky. However, all of this “luck” would have never come about had Ray not continued to work, put himself out there, and explore possibilities with an open mind, despite his poor rote memory and initial distaste for school.

Mindfulness

Credit: ValueWalk

Ray is very open about practicing mindfulness and it’s critical importance within his life. Most notably, Ray is an avid meditator and practices Transcendental Meditation which according to legend, he picked up after the Beatles visited India.

Meditation, more than any other factor, has been the reason for what success I’ve had — Ray Dalio

Ray practices meditation most mornings before heading into the office and follows his own technique…

“It’s just a mental exercise in which you are clearing your mind. Creativity comes from open-mindedness and centeredness — seeing things in a non-emotionally charged way.” — Ray Dalio

Not only does Ray practice Transcendental Meditation himself but he encourages his employees to incorporate the practice into their lives as well. Many claim his business and culture is built up of “intellectual NAVY SEALs”and he believes that Transcendental Meditation provides an effective balance to that drive and hard nosed determination.

If you’d like to put the power of Transcendental Meditation to the test yourself, here’s a guide to getting started, as well as an interview with Dan Harris who explains his method and his initial skepticism around the practice of meditation all together.

Removing His Ego

I imagine it must be hard to keep your ego in check as a billionaire. I’m also in no way saying that Ray, for his entire life, has had no ego. In the past there have been several stories of outlandish (yet always passionate) behavior. Including punching a former boss in the face over an argument.

On New Year’s Eve in 1974, Dalio went out drinking with his departmental boss, got into a disagreement, and slugged him…After being fired, he persuaded some of his clients to hire him as a consultant and founded Bridgewater, operating it out of his two-bedroom apartment. He was twenty-six years old. — John Cassidy, The New Yorker

While the story sounds a lot like something from a C+ Hollywood satire of the typical corporate office party with an open bar…it happens. We all act out and get cocky at times. You, me, and billionaires alike. The key is that we continue to grow, learn and mature through life, and Ray has done all three in spades. Ray has even commented on a video of himself from the 80s saying…

Ray in the early 1980s

"I look at that now, I think, “What an arrogant jerk!” — Ray Dalio, TED Stage

You see, there is a large difference between cockiness and confidence.

To scream from the mountaintop that you are the best and put others down simply for the sake of it, is ego and cockiness. To be sure of your position and be able to unapologetically defend it, that is confidence.

In fact, Ray has spent considerable time, money, and effort attempting to remove his ego from any and all decision making. At Bridgewater, each employee is subject to direct and completely unfiltered feedback, and Ray is no exception. A great example of this is in the email below Ray received from Jim Haskel…

Ray — you deserve a “D-” for your performance today in the meeting … you did not prepare at all because there is no way you could have and been that disorganized. In the future, I/we would ask you to take some time and prepare and maybe even I should come up and start talking to you to get you warmed up or something but we can’t let this happen again. If you in any way think my view is wrong, please ask the others or we can talk about it.

Now take a moment here and think. What would happen if you sent this kind of email to your boss? You might be fired, be asked to join your boss in a private meeting, you might even be escorted out of the building…but not at Bridgewater. Not only was Ray pleased with the feedback, he decided to share the email with all of his employees and again on the TED stage. The feedback did not pull any punches… and hey, that’s the idea.

In his book Principles we see another example of Ray removing his ego, personal life, and accomplishments from the principles he hopes to share. The 567 page book is made up of two parts. The first dives into Ray’s personal journey and the second is pure principles and teachings. In the first few pages he offers the reader an out and invitation to skip the portion related to himself…

I wouldn’t mind if you decided to skip this part of the book. If you do read it, try to look past me and my particular story to the logic and merit of the principles I describe. Think about them, weight them, and describe how much if at all they apply to you and your own life circumstances — and specifically, whether they can help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be. — Ray Dalio, Principles

Ray aims to provide the reader (you) with the value of his life and learnings, without having to hear his story. Which undoubtably takes a large amount of humility, especially in a book you took the time to write.

My painful mistakes shifted me from having a perspective of “I know I’m right” to having one of “How do I know I’m right?” — Ray Dalio

Removing your ego from your daily decision making can have incredible benefits on your daily life. Whether you systematize the process like Ray, or just make a conscious effort to remove your personal feelings about yourself from the situation you’ll notice the positive effects immediately.

Radical Transparency

Something truly unique about Ray’s approach to managing his business culture is the idea of “Radical Transparency.” The idea that everything everyone says, feels, or does, is open for honest feedback and evaluation.

Many praise this style of management as the way of the future, others liken it to a cult. One of the tools in fostering this culture was invented by Bridgewater themselves and is known as The Dot Collector.

One persons assessment of their peers in a single meeting

Bridgewater employees carry iPads into every meeting; as their coworkers speak, they register real-time feedback, grading one another on such criteria as assertiveness and open-mindedness, creativity, and maintaining high standards.

The view over time as peers continue to rank each other on their strengths and weaknesses

Over time, all those data points reveal the collective wisdom of the group — and, the thinking goes, expose each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. At first, Dalio says, receiving such candid feedback can be difficult. But eventually, he says, it challenges you to detach from your own ego. “It forces you to recognize that you are just one of those dots,” he says, “and now you have to make a choice: Do you want to be stuck with your opinion, or go above it all? It’s an out-of-body experience.”

This data is then made available to everyone and shapes the weight of your opinion in making company decisions. This data is also used to match you with the right teams and the right projects. As noted, this process at first can be very painful for some. It’s a hard, no nonsense look at who you are, backed by the numbers.

What some may remember as “golden rules” are also adopted into everyday business practices, but not in the way you might expect. We all know that it’s generally not a great idea to talk about someone behind their back. Well, why not take that idea to new heights as well?

One rule of radical transparency is that Bridgewater employees refrain from saying behind a person’s back anything that they wouldn’t say to his face.

To some, this can be seen as too blunt or as a power move. But to hear Ray explain it, this simply allows everyone to know where they stand with everyone else. Growth in any meaningful form is often painful. In the end, everyone grows through radical transparency, even if at time’s it can be quite awkward.

Once a tape recorder had been switched on, Jensen, McCormick, and Dalio discussed the possible promotion of an internal candidate to a senior-management role. McCormick, a soft-spoken forty-five-year-old who studied engineering at West Point, argued that the candidate’s prior experience at a big Wall Street firm indicated that he could probably do the job. Dalio disagreed. An investment bank is a “totally different world,” he said. But, rather than continue the discussion, he asked one of his assistants to call in the candidate. One rule of radical transparency is that Bridgewater employees refrain from saying behind a person’s back anything that they wouldn’t say to his face.

The man arrived and stood before Dalio’s desk. Dalio explained what the discussion was about and said, “I don’t imagine that you would be a good fit for the job.” The man took a seat, and Dalio and McCormick continued their discussion about his qualifications. The candidate explained his experience on Wall Street and said he thought he could do the job well. Dalio leaned back in his chair, looking skeptical. The employee didn’t get the promotion.

Ray is also quick to point out that the culture of radical transparency is not for everyone. Around 1/3 of Bridgewater’s new hires leave the company in less than 18 months. Although, for those who accept the model and buy in wholeheartedly, it becomes a way of life.

One of the most beneficial consequences of radical transparency is a hard, unforgiving, uncompromising drive towards self-awareness. When you embrace the process and are open to the objective feedback you receive, you are forced to see yourself for what you are. This can be scary with a fixed mindset, however, with a growth mindset this can be one of the most enlightening revelations of your lifetime.

I recommend checking out The Secret Weapon of the 21st Century for more on cultivating self-awareness.

And why not embrace these ideas? A culture of radical transparency may be shocking to some but it also lets everyone know where they stand. People will also be much more careful with their words and actions when they know they will be open to the public. I think we would see a lot of the more common issues in the workplace (and the world at large) disappear if we had more radical transparency.

If you had to sum Ray Dalio up in a few words I think most would agree “Radical Transparency” would be the right fit.

Not The Hero We Wanted, But Maybe The One We Needed?

On several occasions, Ray has attempted to warn the United States government of upcoming crashes and less than sustainable programs. Certainly (and justifiably) the government must be skeptical and wary of such warnings, especially coming from someone involved in markets, potentially with something to gain. However, Ray has been correct on several occasions including in 2007 before one of the largest market crashes in history…

Searching for historical precedents, Bridgewater put together detailed histories of previous credit crises, going back to Weimar Germany. The firm’s researchers also went through the public accounts of nearly all the major financial institutions in the world and constructed estimates of how much money they stood to lose from bad debts. The figure they came up with was eight hundred and thirty-nine billion dollars. Armed with this information, Dalio visited the Treasury Department in December, 2007, and met with some of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s staff. Nobody took much notice of what he said, but he went on to the White House, where he presented his numbers to some senior economic staffers. “Ray laid out the argument that the losses he foresaw in the banking system were astronomical,” a former Bush Administration official who attended the White House meeting recalled. “Everybody else was talking about liquidity. Ray was talking about solvency.” His warnings ignored in Washington, Dalio issued more jeremiads to his clients. “If the economy goes down, it will not be a typical recession,” his newsletter said in January, 2008.

Pay attention to something here — in an effort to inform the appropriate powers Ray began with the Treasury Department, and didn’t stop. Despite the fact that he was largely ignored by the department, he continued his crusade to the White House.

Hedge fund managers weighing in on the inevitability of the ups and downs of the market is nothing new. It is however notable and commendable that such a continued effort was made to sound the alarm to those with the ability to attempt to change the circumstances.

He Gives it ALL Away

Perhaps one of the most incredible things about Ray Dalio and his principles is that he gives them away, largely for free. In recent months Ray has been on a mission to spread awareness not only of his book but of the culture and tools he has created in an effort to help others achieve their goals.

Below are a few of my favorite pieces of free content that will help you see things through the eyes of the world’s most successful hedge fund manager. These ideas, principles, and tools may even help you harness the Science of Success. God Speed.

Bridgewater’s Entire Research Library Is Open To The Public — Here you can look back at the various research and findings Ray and his team have made throughout the years. These are incredible resources for those interested in how the markets (and largely the world) work.

How The Economic Machine Works — This 30-minute video can provide you with more knowledge than most Econ. 101 classes could.

Want To Go Deeper On How The Economic Machine Works? — Ray provides these FREE tools and deeper explanations of every concept mentioned in the above video. Topics include long term and short term debt, leveraging, and much more!

Ray’s TED Talk — Gives you a real-time look at Ray’s past and present and how he goes about using the Dot Collector to make better decisions and weigh ideas.

If you enjoyed this…

I study strategies for evidence based growth. Sign up below to get a TON of specific evidence based books, resources, and recommendations on being happy and successful.

The Research Backed Guide To Being Lucky

Let me ask you an important question…

Are you a lucky person?

Shockingly, your answer to that question actually has more to do with how lucky you are than anything else. Recently, science has proven that we actually can create our own luck. This groundbreaking research reveals several evidence-based tactics you can use to help you stumble into that next great opportunity.

Dr. Richard Wiseman has been named “The Most Interesting and Innovative Experimental Psychologist in the World Today” by The Scientific American. His research and experiments have shed light on some of science’s most interesting topics and debunked several common “self-help” practices.

In a recent interview on The Science of Success, Dr. Wiseman explains how you can find more luck in your life today with science based steps.

But First, A Story…

So you think you’re unlucky, huh? Before we get into the steps, let’s review some of the stories from the Luck Experiments. Dr. Wiseman began by gathering thousands of people who considered themselves lucky or unlucky.

To give you some context, this was the experience of one self-proclaimed “unlucky” person…

· 5 Car Accidents Within 50 Miles — On the same trip.

· Signed Up For A Dating Service…

1. First date broke a leg on the way to meet her.

2. Second, ran into a glass door and broke his nose.

3. When she got engaged, the church she was to be married in burnt down the day before her wedding.

So… maybe you aren’t as unlucky as you thought. Despite these experiences, through adopting some of the mindsets in Dr. Wiseman’s research and implementing some new practices in her life, she actually is luckier.

So let’s get into it, here’s how you can go from unlucky to lucky, in no time at all.

The Newspaper Effect — Your Attention Spotlight

One of the most interesting differences between lucky and unlucky people is their attention spotlight. Lucky people are always looking for an opportunity in the details of everyday life. Where the unlucky tend to move forward without paying as much attention and without looking for luck. This hypothesis was proven and illustrated by Dr. Wiseman’s “Newspaper Experiment”

Dr. Wiseman began by asking participants to classify themselves as lucky or unlucky. They were then asked to flip through a newspaper and count the number of pictures they saw. As a reward they would be given $100. What he did not tell participants was that there were two huge time saving opportunities embedded in the newspaper.

“One was a half-page ad with massive type that said “Stop Counting. There are 42 photographs in this newspaper” and the other was another half page ad that said, “Tell the experimenter you’ve seen this ad and collect your $100 now.” Recalls Dr. Wiseman. The findings were extremely clear. Those who considered themselves lucky saw the ad and collected their money immediately. Those who identified as unlucky sat and counted each ad, missing the valuable time saving message.

When those who considered themselves unlucky felt pushed, stressed, or concerned, their attention narrowed, they put their heads down and droned through the task. In contrast, those who identified themselves as lucky expanded their attention to try and grasp the details of what they were doing. Causing them to get “lucky” and spot this time saving message. If we take the time to slow down, pay attention to what we are doing, and believe we’re lucky, studies show, we will be.

Write It Down

In his next experiment Dr. Wiseman set out to see if we could actually change our luck. “We thought, if we take a group of people who are not particularly lucky or unlucky and get them to think and behave like a lucky person, does that increase their luck?” recalls Dr. Wiseman.

In order to shift the subject’s mindsets they were asked to keep a “luck journal”. Dr. Wiseman lays out the rules, “We asked that at the end of each day they write down the most positive thing that happened or most positive thought they had that day. Or, in some cases, something negative that used to happen that no longer happens, or at very least some thought of gratitude.”

The participants who kept these journals reoriented themselves extremely quickly. They began to see the good things in their lives and the opportunities in front of them. “It’s the most simple interventions we found had the biggest impacts,” notes Dr. Wiseman. Journaling and putting thoughts to paper has been proven to have astounding mental health benefits. By focusing on the good that happens each day we rewire our brains to see more opportunity in each day. Thus increasing how “lucky” we feel with each day.

The Silver Linings Playbook

Once you’ve begun focusing on the positive, it can be hard to stop. Carol Dweck was the first to coin the term “Growth Mindset.” One of the key pillars to a growth mindset is learning and seeing the positive in everything. If you try something and you fail, don’t beat yourself up; focus on what you learned and how you can avoid the same pitfalls in the future. This keeps us moving forward and increase how “lucky” we are in the future as we know what not to do.

By constantly thinking you’re lucky it’s incredible how it changes your perspective of everything. Dr. Wiseman recounts a slightly comical but impactful scenario, “A lucky person would take something as negative as falling down the stairs and find the good. Sure, I fell down the stairs and broke my leg, but if I had landed slightly to the left. I would have broken both of them, lucky.”

You may be thinking that breaking one leg is still a poor outcome. It’s those who train their brain to regard themselves as lucky however who do not dwell on the negative but rather find the positive, shift their focus there, and move forward.

Don’t Be Scared of Change

Oddly enough as Dr. Wiseman explains some people enjoy being unlucky. “About 20% of unlucky people rather enjoy being unlucky. Their self-identity is bound up with that.” This 20% enjoy being the clumsy guest at a party, enjoy never having things work out because on some level, it gives them an excuse.

These people according to the experiments are extremely hard to reach. While thinking lucky can dramatically change your life, you have to want to change to make it happen.

So start writing your own luck journal. Shift the way you think about yourself and the rest will trickle down into how you see the world and interact with others. If you want to start being lucky today, believe it to achieve it.

If you enjoyed this…

I study strategies for evidence based growth. Sign up below to get a TON of specific evidence based books, resources, and recommendations on being happy and successful.