Principles allow us to live consistently with our own values. They serve as a helpful guidance to keep moving forward. Your principles should reflect the morals you believe in. Definition by the author of “Principles”, a book that a friend and colleague of mine shared with me.

Probably with a title like that we could think it’s a book about personal behaviour or code of conduct, but the interesting thing is the author translated this concept to his career as an investor, and that led him to a financial and personal success. Stands out that to succeed it’s important to make decisions in difficult moments and to substantiate this process in universal principles and values.

The author highlights five fundamental principles. First, the true, the precise understanding of reality. Second, evolution and improvement as the major forces that move every human being, the power to learn and adapt to reality is the key ability to succeed. Third, self-care and interest, aligned with universal laws. Fourth, the quality of our choices, based in our principles. And fifth, the need for activities that motivate us, as well as meaningful relationships, happiness aligned to work in what we want and like, and the need of personal relationships to share success and happiness. Additionally, the author shows some important principles to succeed in business, important to be applied in our financial choices and boost their results.

First, learn from the mistakes, create a culture in which you can make mistakes, but you can identify, analyze, and learn from them. We all make mistakes, but successful people outstand for quickly detecting those mistakes and learning from them. Do not feel bad, frustrated, or angry by your mistakes or the mistakes of others. Embrace every failure as an opportunity to learn and improve. Analyze how and why you made that mistake. Apply this principle when a financial decision doesn’t come out with the results you expected and make you lose money: analyze what you have done wrong, learn from that mistake and your investment will improve in consequence. Second, do not worry about criticism, it is also an opportunity to learn. What you need to do is try to acquire new abilities and improve those you already have. Identify your weakness and try to improve. Third, synchronize with truth, ask yourself always what is true and what makes sense to you to achieve your financial objectives. Be upright and demand others to be the same so you do not create unbalance. Fourth, be open minded, you have all the right to ask questions and have your own opinions. Everyone has this right and it is something positive. However, try to differentiate open minded people from those who are not, and stay away from the later because they are not going to sum anything to your life. Fifth, value your credibility, and always ask yourself if you have gained the right to have an opinion. To have credibility you must show with your acts that you know your business. And sixth, choose the right objective and keep learning and improving. You should focus in results and goals. Have in mind your goals and define your priorities. It is very common mistake to establish many goals and want to reach all of them at the same time. That is why you should choose the main goal at the current time and prioritize it. After determining your main goal, analyze the challenges you will face. If you feel you do not have the necessary set skill to do what you want, you must keep learning and developing new knowledges.

Personal and financial success is not achieved overnight, but it is a hard process where you need to aim for continuous improvement. You should keep your mind open, be receptive to criticism, and overall, learn from your mistakes. The key, to live and make decisions based on principles.

Translated by I2T2.