In Ray Dalio’s book, Principles, he writes that he found the above formula to almost always be true.

Optimism is my own addition to the formula.

I once worked with the most brilliant guy who just seemed to be able to figure out all the problems to a solution. He had this talent of seeing so many steps ahead.

He was the most realistic person I knew.

He would almost always meet his deadline and successfully execute the work methodically.

He had everything from Ray’s formula, yet something was holding him back:

He wasn’t optimistic.

“Success”, the way I see it, is a balance of dreams, optimism, and realism — that, with a lot of determination.

I used to have dreams, was optimistic about them and had a good amount of determination. The problem was, I lacked realism.

I learned that from my colleague. And I like to think he learned his optimism thanks to me. He is now CTO of an important company in Canada.

By becoming more realistic about the things I set out to achieve, I managed to raise money twice for Power Level Studios and managed to make partners for my side businesses. I also found that people started saying “yes” to me a lot more.

But realism is still a big weakness of mine.

After all, I’m running 3 (small) companies, I’ve written two books in 3 months (one published), and I have dreams of other side businesses. All that while learning 3 new skills a month, working out and writing every day and spending time with my wife.

What About You?

Out the four parts of the formula above, what are you most lacking? What are you most good at?

Why are you lacking in that aspect? What’s holding you back?

What can you do about it? Why haven’t you done it yet?

Do you believe you can “succeed” if you focus on fixing the missing gap?

I would say in general, things happen in the order of the formula.

It all starts with a dream. Then you are either optimistic or realist about it. When the balance of optimism-realism isn’t right, you usually don’t have “real” determination to carry on.

So I suggest to you:

Allow yourself to dream and be optimistic about those dreams.

Assess feasibility. See 10 steps ahead. See what could work and what couldn’t. Be realistic.

Once you are optimistic and realistic about your dreams, put all your determination at work and you’ll realize you can indeed achieve your most insane dreams and goals.

You can do this!

Thanks for reading! :)