By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Transcendental Meditation: Benefits, News, & More
  • Home
  • Benefits
  • People
  • News
  • Books & Videos
  • Learn Meditation
Reading: Billionaire Ray Dalio credits meditation for success
Share
Aa
Transcendental Meditation: Benefits, News, & More
Aa
  • Home
  • Benefits
  • People
  • News
  • Books & Videos
  • Learn Meditation
Search
  • Home
  • Benefits
  • People
  • News
  • Books & Videos
  • Learn Meditation
  • Advertise
© 2022 TMhome.com
Transcendental Meditation: Benefits, News, & More > Blog > People > Billionaire Ray Dalio credits meditation for success
People

Billionaire Ray Dalio credits meditation for success

Mary Swift
Last updated: 2014/11/28 at 12:19 PM
Mary Swift
Share
8 Min Read
ray dalio_transcendental meditaiton tm video
SHARE

Find out how Meditation can Improve your Life

LEARN MORE

How to go from $300 to $11 billion in a lifetime? And what has meditation got to do with it?

ray dalio on benefits of meditation_1(1)
MODEST BACKGROUND: Ray Dalio was born in New York, an only son of a jazz musician and his wife.

Dalio’s golden touch: Follow The Beatles!

As a 12-year old, Ray Dalio bought shares of Northeast Airlines with $300 he had saved from his job as a golf caddy.

As it happened, Northeast became the object of a merger effort, and the teenager quickly tripled his investment. Ray Dalio was hooked. By the time he graduated from high school, he had assembled a stock portfolio worth several thousand dollars, a significant amount for a teenager in the late ’60s.

In addition to his business interests, Dalio followed music enthusiastically.

investment banker Ray Dalio meditates TM
2 x 20 MINUTES OF MEDITATION EACH DAY: “Creativity is not coming from the “working the brain” and the “I will work hard and think about it”. It comes from this deep state of relaxation,” Ray Dalio says.

And when the era’s most popular band, The Beatles, travelled to India to study meditation, he thought there might be something in it for him too.

So in 1968, he became a daily practitioner of Transcendental Meditation — a discipline he has continued to find helpful throughout his life.

A pragmatic look at the benefits of meditation

“There are different parts of our brain that have a very big influence on us,” Ray Dalio explains his fascination with meditation.

“For instance, the amygdala is the part of the brain that has the “fight or flight” response producing anxiety. The pre-frontal cortex is the part dealing with “executive functioning,” it’s the part that’s reflective. It’s the part that has the ability to say, “Do we want to do that? Do we not want to do that?” We put things in perspective.”

ray dalio billionaire transcendental meditation practice maharishi
THE TEACHER: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught Transcendental Meditation, an ancient Indian technique for calming the mind and perceiving reality more clearly.

And here, says Dalio, is the crucial insight which can benefit us all, no matter what our profession or outlook on life.

“Those two parts of the brain fight with each other. In other words, one part constantly whispers to you, “Do that because it’s exciting! Don’t care that it may be harmful!” The other part of the brain says, “You don’t want to do that.” During meditation, the first part calms down, and the pre-frontal cortex lights up.

So that’s why meditation leads to open-mindedness. To creativity. Meditating is a process of opening up. It’s like taking a hot shower — even though you’re not thinking of something, a great idea comes through and you just grab it.”

Success = open mind and no gossip

Over the years, Ray Dalio applied the insights he had gained from his study of meditation to understanding the psychological factors that influence market decisions and company management.

The greatest obstacle to rational decision-making, he found, was “the ego barrier,” the desire to prove oneself right and others wrong, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Under Dalio’s leadership, his hedge fund Bridgewater has adopted a management style he describes as “radical transparency.”

ray dalio meditates tm practice
DETACHED LIKE A NINJA: “Meditation lead to openness, to freedom, where a kind of intuition just comes through. You could step back and put things in perspective. It doesn’t lessen your emotions. The emotions are the same, but you can step back and say, “I’m not going to be controlled by that emotion,” and I think it then helps to see things at a higher level,” Dalio says. Photo: raydalioblog.blogspot.com

Criticism of fellow colleagues and analysis of their mistakes are encouraged and valued, as long as they contribute to the learning process. Secrecy, gossip and behind-the-back criticism are prohibited. All meetings are videotaped and the recordings are made available to the entire organization.

Becoming one of the richest men on the planet

In 2006, Bridgewater analysts calculated that the total debt service in the U.S. was exceeding income, and that the economy was headed towards a major deleveraging.

Consequently, Bridgewater made major investments in the U.S. Treasury bonds, gold and the Japanese yen. Ray Dalio foresaw that the boom in home mortgage finance in the U.S. would come to an end in 2007, and met with the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington to warn him that the large banks which were deeply invested in mortgage-backed securities were in danger of insolvency.

In the spring of 2008, Bridgewater pulled out of several large banks, including Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. A week later, Bear Stearns failed and panic overtook the international financial markets.

In the crisis that ensued, most investment funds posted massive losses, while Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha fund posted gains of nine-and-a-half percent.

The markets continued to validate Dalio’s approach. In 2010, Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha fund rose by staggering 45 percent or $15 billion — more than the combined profits of Google, Amazon, Yahoo and eBay combined.

While Bridgewater’s workforce grew to well over a thousand employees, it remains an independent, employee-run organization. In 2010, Ray Dalio sold roughly 20 percent of the company to Bridgewater employees. In 2011, Bridgewater reported returns of roughly 23 percent, while the average hedge fund was losing four percent or more. It was estimated that Ray Dalio earned $3.9 billion that year, placing his net worth in the neighborhood of $11 billion and bringing him to Top 40 richest people in the US.

In both 2012 and 2013, Bridgewater was recognized for having earned its clients more than any other hedge fund in the history of the industry.

Ray Dalio interview on benefits of Transcendental Meditaiton
PAY IT FORWARD: Ray Dalio receives the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement. Along with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, Ray Dalio has signed “The Giving Pledge,” committing to giving half of his net wealth to charity over the course of his lifetime. He has created The Ray Dalio Foundation to channel his philanthropic contributions. Read more about Dalio’s charitable giving.

Click here to learn how Meditation can Reduce Stress and Improve your Life

Find out how Meditation can Improve your Life

LEARN MORE

You Might Also Like

Chelsea McCooey, meditation teacher from Vancouver, Canada

VIDEO: How Transcendental Meditation makes me feel in one word

Meditation & High-blood pressure clinical trial

A life through objects: Andy Kaufman

TAGGED: brain functioning, CEOs who meditate, Ray Dalio, success in business, The Beatles, videos on TM
Mary Swift August 9, 2022
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link Print
Share
Previous Article anxiety depression meditation Beating depression and anxiety: Martin’s journey from darkness to light
Next Article Study on awareness training for children

Search

banner
FIND OUT HOW MEDITATION CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
LEARN MORE

Latest News

Author Pat Barrett talks about the inspiration behind his book ‘A Readable Yoga’
Books & Videos January 11, 2023
lilian darr memoir hippie meditation ft
Lilian Darr’s autobiography Memoirs of a 90-year-old hippie
Books & Videos November 3, 2022
chelsea mccooey tm meditation vancouver canada
Chelsea McCooey, meditation teacher from Vancouver, Canada
People November 3, 2022
tm meditation in one word transcendental
VIDEO: How Transcendental Meditation makes me feel in one word
Books & Videos November 2, 2022
Meditating regularly can relieve multiple sclerosis symptoms
Benefits November 2, 2022

Stay Connected

686k Followers Like
85k Followers Follow
2k Followers Pin
155k Followers Follow
127k Subscribers Subscribe
//

Bringing health, happiness, and well-being to society

Privacy Policy

Contact Us

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Benefits
  • People
  • News
  • Books & Videos
  • Learn Meditation

Top Categories

  • Meditation Research
  • Videos on TM
  • Testimonials
  • Interviews
  • Benefits of TM

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

© 2022 TMhome.com

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?