Billionaire investor Ray Dalio is no stranger to success — he's the founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, which manages roughly $160 billion in assets. As constant technological advances and evolving strategies shape the future of business, Dalio tells CNBC Make It three critical skills he believes everyone will need to get ahead.
1. Open-mindedness
"Whatever success I've had in life has had more to do with my knowing how to deal with my not knowing, rather than what I know," Dalio told CNBC Make It while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
"If you understand that radical open-mindedness, the ability to take in from others and to then learn is so powerful," he says. "Don't be attached to your opinions."
In fact, Dalio suggests what he calls "stress-testing" your opinions.
"Go to find the smartest people who disagree with you the most to stress test your thinking, to learn," Dalio told CNBC Make It adding: "If they disagree, then the conversation in that disagreement will be enlightening. That's the quickest way to get an education."
2. Tech-friendliness
Dalio touts using technology to build on your own ideas and practices.
It's something he's done at Bridgewater. The company uses computer algorithms based on Dalio's decision-making criteria for investing as well as managing employees.
"The power of being able to take your decision-making rules and make them into algorithms and have the computer make decisions in partnership with you is fantastic," Dalio said.
At Bridgewater, for example, the team uses an app called "Dots," via which employees offer constant feedback and rate one another's performances, and another called "Baseball Cards" which summarizes individual employees' strengths and weaknesses based on their Dots feedback.
The apps are able to essentially filter vast amounts of information through the principles with which Dalio runs Bridgewater Associates, namely his philosophy of "radical transparency." (Dalio went in depth into those very ideas in his recent book, "Principles: Life and Work".)
"The algorithms were able to process much more information than I was able to see or process individually," Dalio said.
Of course, it should be noted that Dalio's management techniques have been met with their share of criticism, as has the company's use of algorithms.
3. Global thinking
"Be as global as possible," Dalio advised. "Whatever happens in terms of the ebbs and flows, there's all sorts of great things happening in other countries. And to be able to be aware of that, to really not be provincial, I think would be important."
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