Part I. Where I'm coming from -- My call to adventure, 1949-1967 -- Crossing the threshold, 1967-1979 -- My abyss, 1979-1982 -- My road of trials, 1983-1994 -- The ultimate boon, 1995-2010 -- Returning the boon, 2011-2015 -- My last year and my greatest challenge, 2016-2017 -- Looking back from a higher level -- Part II. Life principles -- Embrace reality and deal with it -- Use the 5-step process to get what you want out of life -- Be radically open-minded -- Understand that people are wired very differently -- Learn how to make decisions effectively -- Life principles: putting it all together -- Summary and table of life principles -- Part III. Work principles -- Summary and table of work principles -- To get the culture right ... -- Trust in radical truth and radical transparency -- Cultivate meaningful work and meaningful relationships -- Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes and unacceptable not to learn from them -- Get and stay in sync -- Believability weight your decision making -- Recognize how to get beyond disagreements -- To get the people right ... -- Remember that the WHO is more important than the WHAT -- Hire right, because the penalties for hiring wrong are huge -- Constantly train, test, evaluate, and sort people -- To build and evolve your machine ... -- Manage as someone operating a machine to achieve a goal -- Perceive and don't tolerate problems -- Diagnose problems to get at their roots -- Design improvements to your machine to get around your problems -- Do what you set out to do -- Use tools and protocols to shape how work is done -- And for heaven's sake, don't overlook governance! -- Work principles: putting it all together -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Tools and protocols for Bridgewater's idea meritocracy.