Today I learned that Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates and educator, calls himself a "professional mistake maker" on Twitter (@RayDalio).
This is crazy, because a best friend of mine always calls himself a "professional loser" too. He and Dalio also happen to share many traits. For example: the desire to understand the world as it really is, the intolerance for bullshit, the dedication for doing the things they really care about, etc, etc. They also happen to be two of the few people I truly admire.
I think maybe people who consider themselves professional "loser" or "mistake maker" have the gift of not fearing their own failures.
They are not afraid to fail, as long as they are failing in a methodical and reflective way.
In other words, they meditate on their failures, so that the next time they fail, they fail for a new and different reason. Note that it is impossible to avoid failures, even though some people spend a lifetime trying. We all fail, sooner than later, if not all the time.
Rumor has it that Dalio lost a lot of money in the 2020 market crash when bond and stock became positively-correlated, which totally f***ed up Bridgewater's strategy. But what did he do? He spent the next few months learning about the historical consequences of similar long-term debt crisis, and is about to publish a new book: The Changing World Order.
If that isn't a professional failure, then I don't know what is.