There is a little-known secret that 75-year-old billionaire Ray Dalio credit for his success: transcendental meditation.
Dalio is finest identified for founding Bridgewater Associates in 1975 and constructing it into the world’s largest hedge fund, with $97.2 billion in property as of 2023. He’s value over $16 billion on the time of writing, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with most of his fortune coming from his $6.65 billion stake in Bridgewater.
“One of the best recommendation that I may give anyone, I believe, it will be to meditate, and that is as a result of it provides you a calmness and equanimity,” Dalio told CNBC earlier this week. “No matter success I’ve had in life has been extra as a consequence of my meditating than the rest.”
Dalio disclosed in 2021 to the outlet that he practices transcendental meditation, which entails repeating a mantra or a brief sound or phrase for a set period of time, for twenty minutes, twice a day. The intention is to focus the thoughts and assist the practitioner obtain a state of deep leisure.
Dalio says that every 20-minute meditation session appears like a “20-minute trip” that calms him down and helps him make higher choices. He comes up with inventive concepts throughout his classes, rising with a clearer thoughts.
Ray Dalio. Photograph by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs
Research has proven that transcendental meditation can scale back trauma signs and enhance psychological well being. A March 2020 study printed within the journal “Mind and Cognition” confirmed that contributors who practiced transcendental meditation felt much less despair, anxiousness, and stress.
Dalio first began meditating in 1968, seven years earlier than founding Bridgewater Associates. He was impressed by The Beatles, who popularized the practice in 1967. Dalio sustained the observe for the next 5 a long time of the hedge fund’s development earlier than stepping down as co-CEO in 2017. Beneath his management, Bridgewater established a administration type referred to as “radical transparency,” which implies that all conferences are recorded and out there to the complete group and constructive criticism of colleagues is inspired.
Dalio is not the one billionaire who swears by meditation. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson meditated 30,000 ft within the air on the world’s first meditation flight with Virgin Australia in 2018. The identical 12 months, the billionaire introduced a meditation, sleep, and stretch room within the London Virgin workplace.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey shared in a February 2025 episode of the “In Good Firm” podcast he used to go on a 10-day silent meditation retreat yearly for 5 years earlier than the pandemic. At these retreats, he would meditate from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. and cease talking completely.
