Ray Dalio & Bill Belichick on Picking People: Part 1

So, picking people, that's what we're on. Tell me about it.

Well, I think that's the number one thing, is to try to get it right on the way in the door. Um, and you know, understanding what you need, um, and what you're looking for. So, um, as we like to say, um, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

So, we try to define the path of what we're looking for in terms of the traits, the athletic qualities, the competitiveness, and so forth, um, know by position to identify that, and then try to select those people that we feel like will fit into our culture and into our program.

Um, because it's so hard to change them if they don't have those qualities. It's really hard to, uh, you know, you can mold a little bit, but it's hard to fundamentally change selfish to unselfish, as an example. So, um, that's really the selection part of it that is really important for us at the beginning.

And, um, in our business, we start with 90 players, uh, and then we go to 53. So, 37 players get fired every year. Um, and one of the things that I learned from Jack Welch, uh, one of his great axioms was treat them the same way on the way out as you treat them on the way in.

You're happy to have them on the way in, you love them on the way in. If it doesn't work out, you feel the same way about them on the way out. I mean, unless there's been some extraordinary circumstance. But sometimes it just doesn't work out where you have to move on, and it's probably your fault as much as it is anybody else's because you didn't select the right person.

But in the end, you know, we move on and treat them the same as the way in, as a way out. But the selection process at the beginning really is the key to, I think, building the culture and building the organization that you want.