Getting the right people in the right roles in support of your goal is the key to succeeding at whatever you choose to accomplish. - Ray Dalio

Elon Musk (of Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity), Jeff Bezos (of Amazon), and Reed Hastings (of Netflix) are other great shapers from the business world. In philanthropy, Muhammad Yunus (of Grameen), Geoffrey Canada (of Harlem Children’s Zone), and Wendy Kopp (of Teach for America) come to mind; and in government, Winston Churchill, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lee Kuan Yew, and Deng Xiaoping. Bill Gates has been a shaper in both business and philanthropy, as was Andrew Carnegie. Mike Bloomberg has been a shaper in business, philanthropy, and government. Einstein, Freud, Darwin, and Newton were giant shapers in the sciences. Christ, Muhammad, and the Buddha were religious shapers. They all had original visions and successfully built them out.

Reality, in turn, will send you loud signals about how well your principles are working by rewarding or punishing you, so you will learn to fine- tune them accordingly.

Own your life and take responsibility to make it great. When life doesn't give you what you want, don't be angry—learn how reality works and develop principles to get you where you want to be. Be radically open-minded, and recognize that if you want to be really successful, you have to work really hard.