Principle for Success: Your Two Biggest Barriers | Episode 6

BY RAY DALIO

I can’t tell you which path in life is best for you because I don’t know how important it is for you to achieve big goals relative to how important it is for you to avoid the pains required to get them.

This is the courage I spoke of earlier and we each have to feel these things out for ourselves. After my big mistake in calling for a depression, I had come to one of life’s forks in the road as we all do.

If I made the choice to take a normal job and play it safe, I would have ended up with a very different life than the one I had.

But as long as I can pay the rent, put food on the table, and educate my kids, the only choice for me was to risk crossing the jungle in pursuit of the best life possible. My big mistake in betting on a depression gave me a healthy fear of being wrong, in other words, it gave me deep humility, which was exactly what I needed. At the same time, it didn’t stop me from aggressively going after the things I wanted.

To succeed, I needed to see more than I alone can see. But standing in my way of doing that were the two biggest barriers everyone faces: our ego and blind spot barriers. These barriers exist because of how our brains work.

First, let’s explore the ego barrier. When I refer to your ego barrier, I’m talking about the parts of your brain that prevent you from acknowledging your weaknesses objectively so that you can figure out how deal with it.

Your deepest-seated needs and fears reside in areas of your brain that control your emotions and are not accessible to your higher level conscious awareness and because our need to be right can be more important than our need to find out what’s true, we like to believe our own opinions without properly stress testing them. We especially don’t like to look at our mistakes and weaknesses. We are instinctively prone to react to explorations of them as though they’re attacks. We get angry, even though it would be more logical for us to be open to feedback from others. This leads to our making inferior decision, learning less, and falling short of our potentials.

The second is the blind spot barrier. Everyone has blind spots. The blind spot barrier is when a person believes he or she can see everything, but it’s a simple fact that no one alone can see a complete picture of reality.

Naturally people can’t appreciate what they can’t see, just as well all have different ranges for singing, hearing pitch, and seeing colors, we have different ranges for seeing and understanding things. For example, while some people are better at seeing the big picture others excel at seeing details.

Some are linear thinkers and others are more lateral. While some are creative but not reliable, others are reliable but not creative, and so on.

Because of how our brains are wired differently, everyone perceives the world around them differently. By doing what comes naturally to us, we fail to account for our weaknesses and we crash. Either we keep doing that or we change.

Aristotle defined tragedy as a terrible outcome arising from a person’s fatal flaw. A flaw that, had it been fixed, would have instead led to a wonderful outcome.

In my opinion, these two barriers are the main impediments that get in the way of good decision-making. My fear of being wrong gave me the radical open-mindedness I needed and that changed everything.

单词表

courage 勇气
in calling for 在召唤
fork 叉，叉状物
end up with 以…..结尾…
pursuit n:追求，寻求，实施，娱乐
humility 谦虚，谦逊
exactly adv 精确地，确切地
aggressively adv 侵略地，攻击地，激烈地
ego n. 自我，自尊
blind spot 盲点
because of 由于，取决于
refer to 提到，描述，指的是
acknowledge v. 承认
deepest-seated 最深处的
reside vi. 居住，留驻，属于
accessible to 能进去的，易接近的
conscious adj. 意识到的，神志清醒的
awareness n. 意识，察觉
instinctively adv. 本能地
prone adj. 易于…的，俯卧的，有….倾向的
react v （做出）反应；起化学反应
logical adj. 逻辑上的，推理正确的，合乎情理的
inferior adj. 下等的 n. 部下，晚辈
fall short 缺乏
potential adj 潜在的 n. 潜力，可能性
appreciate v. 重视，欣赏，感激，领会
pitch n. 场地；音高
excel v.擅长，突出，胜过
linear adj. 直线的，线性的
lateral adj. 侧面的，横向的
wired adj. 联网的，紧张的，兴奋的
perceive v. 感觉，认为
account for 说明，导致，对…..负责
Aristotle n. 亚里士多德
tragedy n. 悲剧
arising from 产生于…
fatal adj. 致命的，灾难性的，后果极其严重的
flaw n. 错误，缺点，瑕疵
impediment n. 阻碍；身体上的某种残疾，缺陷
radical adj. 根本的，基本的，激进的 n. 激进分子，根基

Principles for Success: Your Two Biggest Barriers | Episode 6

Your Two Biggest Barriers

Principle for Success: Your Two Biggest Barriers | Episode 6

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