I follow Ray Dalio and his blog at Principles.com. According to Ray, you need a set of principles to navigate and win at life. I agree.
Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life. - Ray Dalio
However, you cannot just copy someone else's principles and expect to win at life. Everyone's life is different. What you want from your life, is not going to be the same as what your friend wants from life.
But how does one figure out what principles you need in life. Using my Shane Parrish's mental models and Design Thinking, I decided that the best way to figure things out is to start from the end.
At the end of my life, on my deathbed, what are some of the things I would want on that day, and what are the things I desperately do not want to regret doing or more importantly, not doing.
This mode of thinking is congruent to the Islamic way of life. It all starts with death. To us Muslims, life on earth is transient. We are meant to live our lives as travellers through this earth because this is an impermanent world. Our final destination is the afterlife where we live immortally.
It came to a realisation that I must give back to society and pay it forward. In order to be great at death, what are some of the things that would push a thousand people to come to my funeral?
A few years back, I received news one of my teachers died. Her funeral prayer was attended by hundreds of former students. I've never seen so many people attend a funeral for pretty much a nobody. It reminded me about how a friend of mine died an untimely death. Hundreds came to his funeral from all walks of life. He wasn't even a famous national footballer. But pretty much many national team players came down to his funeral.
The one thing in common about these 2 individuals are how likeable they are. But why? My teacher and my friend were kind. They don't have a lot of money. But they were the kindest, gentlest people I knew.
Principle #1: Be kind. Even to those who hate you.
So with that in mind, I started thinking about how the call to prayer, the Adhan, had a phrase "hayya Ala solah. hayya Ala falah". Translated, it meant "Come to prayer. Come to success". The only way to be good at life, is to be great at death.
And so, I thought about how to be great at death. One needs to make regular prayer. To fulfil the obligations of a Muslim. But what deeds could one do where God promised unending reward? For a Muslim, once you die, you can no longer pray. Your deeds for prayer ends. But there are deeds where they continue to count even after you've died a thousand years.
One type of deed that will outlast death is called a waqf. In English, it is an endowment. But I was not a rich guy. How do I make an estate large enough to afford a waqf that would help society? I realised that you do not need to wait to be rich to do this.
There are many types of waqf, and the one I decided to work on was an Education Waqf. Education is very important issue to me. In order for me to setup an endowment for others, I first needed to set one up for my children. I went about setting up an Education Endowment for my children with a modest sum which would mature when they hit adulthood.
After that, I signed up for AMP's Ready for School programme where I contribute a monthly sum to fund the education of someone in need.
Principle #2: Lifelong Impact. Do not undervalue the impact of small deeds.
I thought about the things in life where I don't compromise. I grew up getting bullied a lot. I hated bullying. And so I wanted to be a policeman to keep the bullies in check. One of the things I have always been consistent with is about fighting for the small guy. Even in business, I was fascinated by marketplaces providing the mom and pop shop a level playing field.
Principle #3: Uncompromising Justice. Make life fairer for the underdogs.
I realised that principles are essentially value systems that guide you as your North Star. We do this in companies and schools. Yet, many of us don't think about using it for living our life.
Creating these set of principles helps you focus on being the best version of you. It guides you in your decision making. And as I've often said, the one thing in business that many people fail at isn't that they don't have great ideas. It's that they make poor decisions.
I realised life needs a decision making framework. And that starts with your value system. I was reminded again about this from my Career Coach. And today, I formalise my personal principles to remind myself on what I need to do to win at life.