Pain + Reflection = Progress – Ray Dalio.

Ray is a billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the worlds largest hedge funds.

His philosophy is that failure is inevitable. The difference with successful people is their ability to reflect and learn from their mistakes.

This quote speaks volumes to me today. Over the weekend, one of my best friends and I had an exchange of words that was taken out of context, causing escalation beyond need.

We went at it in a brutal (verbal) blood bath until we finally both said screw it, our friendship is over.

And that lasted for about 8 hours. Long enough for us to both realize that our friendship was far too valuable for such nonsense. Instead, we both stripped ourselves of our egos, tucked our tails between our legs, and let each other know that we were sorry for being such an A Hole.

We found the courage to say I love you, and I love our friendship.

It was painful. But we reflected and with the removal of ego, we learned about some trip wires that we won’t fall into again. Our friendship is stronger for it.

Live | Laugh | Love

-chad shipley

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