There’s a little-known secret that 75-year-old billionaire Ray Dalio credits for his success: transcendental meditation.
Dalio is best known for founding Bridgewater Associates in 1975 and building it into the world’s largest hedge fund, with $97.2 billion in assets as of 2023. He is worth over $16 billion at the time of writing, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with most of his fortune coming from his $6.65 billion stake in Bridgewater.
“The best advice that I could give anybody, I think, it would be to meditate, and that’s because it gives you a calmness and equanimity,” Dalio told CNBC earlier this week. “Whatever success I’ve had in life has been more due to my meditating than anything else.”
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Dalio disclosed in 2021 to the outlet that he practices transcendental meditation, which involves repeating a mantra or a short sound or word for a set amount of time, for twenty minutes, twice a day. The aim is to focus the mind and help the practitioner achieve a state of deep relaxation.
Dalio says that each 20-minute meditation session feels like a “20-minute vacation” that calms him down and helps him make better decisions. He comes up with creative ideas during his sessions, emerging with a clearer mind.
Ray Dalio. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Research has shown that transcendental meditation can reduce trauma symptoms and improve mental health. A March 2020 study published in the journal “Brain and Cognition” showed that participants who practiced transcendental meditation felt less depression, anxiety, and stress.
Dalio first started meditating in 1968, seven years before founding Bridgewater Associates. He was inspired by The Beatles, who popularized the practice in 1967. Dalio sustained the practice for the following five decades of the hedge fund’s growth before stepping down as co-CEO in 2017. Under his leadership, Bridgewater established a management style called “radical transparency,” which means that all meetings are recorded and available to the entire organization and constructive criticism of colleagues is encouraged.
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Dalio isn’t the only billionaire who swears by meditation. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson meditated 30,000 feet in the air on the world’s first meditation flight with Virgin Australia in 2018. The same year, the billionaire introduced a meditation, sleep, and stretch room in the London Virgin office.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey shared in a February 2025 episode of the “In Good Company” podcast he used to go on a 10-day silent meditation retreat every year for five years before the pandemic. At these retreats, he would meditate from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. and stop speaking entirely.
