Startup Blabber #018: Open-Minded Attitude

Dear Steemians,

The next book I have been tackling for the past few days is Ray Dalio's Principles: Life and Work. For those who are not aware of Ray Dalio, I have provided a Wikipedia link to his biography. He is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, which is one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He must have done something right to go from 0 dollars under management to over 150 billion dollars under management.

As many might have already guessed, I like to read a lot about successful entrepreneurs. I honestly believe that success is attributed to 90% luck and 10% work, with the caveat that without the 10% work, there would be no luck. When I read about successful entrepreneurs, it really gets me thinking about methods that I myself can apply to myself, to my family, or to my company.

One of the big takeaways that I have always struggled with is being very open-minded. It is human nature to be very defensive in your thoughts. If someone critiques you or your opinion, you are prone to take a defensive stance. As such, in order to minimize defensiveness and to maximize open-mindedness, Ray advises structuring the dialogue with questions rather than statements. Also, he advises to take the next steps, which I quote directly from his book, for structuring meetings.

1. Put our honest thoughts out on the table,
2. Have thoughtful disagreements in which people are willing to shift their opinions as they learn, and
3. Have agreed-upon ways of deciding (e.g., voting, having clear authorities) if disagreements remain so that we can move beyond them without resentments.

The good thing is that this issue relates to both your personal life as well as business. To be frank, much of the book (so far) is pretty idealistic. I'm sure that there was a lot of information that was scrapped for the sake of the story, but it really does put into perspective the principles that Ray tries to live by. I also have this flaw, where I don't like being critiqued very often, but as I gain more and more experience, I think this issue has gotten a lot better, and as a result, people are just much more open with me. I mean who really likes having people say that you are wrong?

What I have learned over the years is that if you really trust/respect the counter-party, that critique is not a judgment on your character, but on your one-off decision. Heck, that critique might be off, but it will get you to think about the issue a bit further. If you are able to differentiate between the two (critique on character and critique in a one-off decision), then you are on a road towards self-improvement. You ultimately learn the quickest via your mistakes, right?

What are your thoughts?

Have a great day!
Chris

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