In Philanthropy Roundtable’s interview series “Donors Donors,” Roundtable President and CEO Elise Westhoff interviews entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Ray Dalleon. Dalio is the founder, chief investment officer and board member of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds.
During the interview, Dalio discusses starting Bridgewater Associates from a modest two-bedroom, the principles that guide the business, and how his son Matt inspired the family’s philanthropy. Dalio Philanthropies currently supports a variety of causes, including education, medical research, mental health, entrepreneurship, and ocean exploration.
Playing “the game”.
By his own account, Ray Dalio was not much of a student.
“I didn’t like school, memorizing everything,” he said.
However, the golf course was another matter altogether.
When Dalio was 12 years old, he took a job teaching at The Links Golf Club, a walking distance from his Manhasset, Long Island home. He said his decision to take the job “determined” the course of his life, giving him an introduction to Wall Street professionals who taught him about trading stocks. Dalio bought his first stock for $5 and tripled his money.
“I told him I like this game. This game is an easy game,’ Dalio recalled. “Of course, this game is not easy, but that started my journey.”
After graduating from Long Island University, then CW Post, and earning an MBA from Harvard Business School, Dalio joined a brokerage house as director of commodities, then left to start his own firm.
During their conversation, Westhoff asked Dalio why he chose to leave a brokerage firm to strike out on his own.
“I was fired,” Dalio replied. “And that was one of the best things that ever happened to me… because I could be on my own and do the things I love and do it my way.
Leadership principles
Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975 and found early success. However, in the early 1980s, he made a controversial market calculation that resulted in huge losses for his clients and himself. In fact, Dalio was so broke that he had to borrow $4,000 from his father to pay his expenses. However, he learned a valuable lesson from this mistake.
“That was very, very painful … but it gave me the humility I needed to balance my courage,” Dalio said. “In other words, ‘How do I know I’m right?’ I started thinking.
Dalio realized that he had to learn how to better manage risk when making investment decisions.
“I had to solve this puzzle,” he said. “And it changed my way of thinking. So, for example, it made me more radical. … I wanted to meet very smart people who disagreed with me to understand their thinking.
One of Dalio’s signature principles, the “idea meritocracy” he created, “a system that brings together smart, independent thinkers and effectively disagrees to come up with the best common sense,” permeates every aspect of his business. A tool to allow for “extreme honesty” during meetings, Dot has created the assembler. With radical honesty, Dalio believes that the best ideas will surely emerge.
Soon, Dalio discovers everything he’s done wrong, and every puzzle he solves offers a chance to win a “prize.”
After all, he likes to say, “pain and reflection equal growth.”
Dalio eventually compiled his collection of principles — 150 in all — into the New York Times bestseller “Principles.” The book details Dalio’s journey from broke to business success and becoming one of the richest men in the world.
Dalio Philanthropists: A Family Affair
Another principle Dalio said he learned from his travels is the importance of contributing to the community’s happiness and well-being. Thanks to his son, Matt Dalio, he and his family found this sense of community through their philanthropy.
It all started when Dalio and his wife Barbara Dalio sent Matt to study abroad in China at the age of 11. After returning home, Matt learns that his neighbors are trying to adopt a child from China and says they can help. Through the adoption process, Matt discovered that most of China’s orphans had special needs, many of them abandoned by parents who could not afford medical care.
Matt decided to start a foundation, China Care, “to give children with special needs who have lost their parents a brighter future. Focused on providing life-saving surgical and medical services. Later, he built a network of 50 China Care Clubs to help improve the care of Chinese orphans.
“This is what started our journey,” Dalio said simply.
Get your traction
Together, Dalio, his wife, and their children founded Dalio Philanthropies, a foundation to support their philanthropic priorities. Family members are encouraged to find causes that appeal to them personally. According to Mr. Dalio, this led to various causes and family-supported organizations joining forces.
“For me, the most important few [causes I support involve] Justice in terms of equal opportunity, because I have to live the American dream … but for a lot of people, that’s not the case,” Dalio said.
One way the Dalio family strives to create equal opportunity is through their work for students.
“Especially my wife, but she has a way of helping high school students in need. [helping] They get out of high school and into the workforce,” Dalio said.
One of Dalio’s philanthropic beneficiaries, Connecticut Rice, has increased its on-time graduation rate by 20 percent.
Meanwhile, to expand access to health care in underserved communities, Dalio Philanthropies created the Dalio Center for Health Justice at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dalio Philanthropies is a founding member and supporter of Grameen America, which has invested $2 billion in microloans to more than 137,000 women entrepreneurs since 2008.
“[Grameen America] He doesn’t take a great chance. Some of these [microloan recipients] They have become great entrepreneurs,” Dalio said.
Another major area of Dalio’s philanthropic giving is ocean exploration, a passion Dalio developed at an early age when he went scuba diving and watched scenes from “Jacques Cousteau’s Undersea World.” Now, with his Ocean X initiative, Dalio is advocating a modern Coustius that explores the “unreachable” parts of the ocean with “the most advanced exploration vessel ever built.”
To educate others about ocean exploration, Dalio currently co-creates a television series with renowned filmmaker James Cameron that explores the most inaccessible parts of the ocean aboard “the most advanced exploration and media vessel ever built.”
Principles of giving
When asked for his advice to new philanthropists, Dalio offered a simple success principle; This is what drives the family’s charity work.
“It’s a journey. “Make your work and passion the same,” he said. “Pull.”Learn more about “Donors Donors” and watch the full interview featuring Ray Dalio here. Sign up for Roundtable’s YouTube channel To make sure you don’t miss future episodes.
