410: Is Ray Dalio Really Who He Says He Is?

My social life sucks. I moved to Montecito in 2017 from Chicago a married man with 3 children. When we got here, I didn’t know anyone. 

Luckily, I had my family and was plenty entertained by my three little girls. My now ex-wife also served as social coordinator to make sure we had things to do.

Then with beginning of Covid, my marriage came to an end. Since moving to Montecito, I had been working from home on businesses that had become very successful but I hadn’t worked on my social life at all because that had been outsourced.

So I entered Covid isolation with almost no community or life outside of business. Needless to say, it was lonely. The only good thing that came of it was a lot of success in those businesses that occupied my time.

I used Covid as an excuse while it lasted but the truth is that my social life still sucks. I have not been successful in that aspect of my life. So, I’m not a good person to tell you how to create a successful social life and will not be writing a book about it anytime soon.

So why am I telling you this? Is this some kind of suicide letter? No. I’m too busy with my longevity podcast for that. What I’m trying to do is to simply illustrate that you can be wildly successful in one aspect of your life and an abject failure in other parts.

The funny thing is that for anyone successful, it is very difficult to truly assess what they are good at and what they are not from the outside.

Take a look at Tony Robbins. Is he a success? He’s a great communicator. He’s helped a lot of people and made a lot of money. But he’s been married multiple times and who knows how his relationships are with his children.

But if Tony Robbins wrote a book on marital a bliss, it would be a New York Times bestseller. Why? Because he’s Tony Robbins and he is a successful guy that people want to listen to. But, like the rest of us, he’s far more successful in certain parts of his life than others.

Similarly, hedge legendary hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has written multiple books on “principles” for investing and for life. Dalio is certainly as qualified as anyone else to talk about money.

But why would we assume that his success translates over to anything else? In fact, there are plenty of people who have worked with and for him who consider his principals outside of investing to be a failure at best and downright fraudulent at worst.

So why would people buy books by Ray Dalio that don’t involve money? Because, again, he’s a hugely successful person and people want to learn how to be successful.

The challenge for everyone is to look at any of these god-like figures and to understand that they are human with all sorts of flaws. And while we may be able to learn some things from them in which they excel, we shouldn’t translate success in certain parts of their lives to suggest that they’ve got it all figured out.

My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today wrote a book on Ray Dalio that tells the story of a man who may be quite different that the image he has created for himself. It certainly has pushed a button for Ray Dalio as he has threatened to sue the author and has thrown back fiery accusations about him.

It’s a fascinating story that you are not going to want to miss. Tune in to this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast as I interview Rob Copeland, the author who has thoroughly pissed off Ray Dalio!

Show Notes:

00:08:29:06 Who is Ray Dalio really?

00:13:15:03 What made Ray Dalio a successful hedge fund manager?

00:14:53:09 Alpha vs Beta returns

00:18:05:22 The Dark side of Ray Dalio

00:22:42:19 Can Ray Dalio really predict the zombie apocalypse?

00:27:12:16 Getting sued by Ray Dalio