Ray Dalio is the founder and owner of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest and richest hedge fund. The firm manages approximately $130 billion in global investments for institutional clients including foreign governments and central banks, pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations. The son of a jazz musician, Dalio began investing at the age of 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300, tripling his investment when the airline merged with another company. After completing his education at Long Island University and Harvard Business School, Dalio worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and invested in commodity futures. In 1975, at age 26, he founded Bridgewater Associates in his two-bedroom Manhattan apartment. As the firm expanded, he wrote a 100-page essay, 'Principles,' to share his management philosophy with his employees. Dalio believes his team must be 'radically truthful and transparent' to achieve excellence. 'We need to know what's true,' he asserts, 'especially those things that we would rather not be true’Ķ' In both 2010 and 2011, Bridgewater ranked as the largest and best-performing hedge fund manager in the world. Its clients and employees routinely give Bridgewater top satisfaction ratings in annual surveys. Forbes magazine has estimated Dalio's net worth at $10 billion, making him one of the wealthiest self-made men in America. In 2011, he personally earned $3 billion. Ray Dalio shares his philosophy of life and business in this podcast, recorded at historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., during the 2012 International Achievement Summit.