At least one observer says Dalio has the key personnel in place now, especially with McCormick, who has the client-facing role Dalio once held. “David is maybe the right person to continue that culture without destroying the legacy,” says Yale’s Sonnenfeld, who knows both men. “Dalio has such a trusted relationship with him.” Indeed, in one archived video seen by a former employee, Dalio says McCormick is one of his heroes.
“The last act in the biography of the hero is that of the death or departure,” Campbell wrote in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. For his part, Bridgewater’s founder is looking toward the end of his journey. “Life exists in three phases for me,” Dalio says. “There’s the first phase in which you’re learning and dependent on others; there’s the second phase in which you’re working, and others are dependent on you; and then there’s this third phase where no one is dependent on you, and you’re free.”
While Dalio embraces freedom as his destiny, few have more at stake than Bridgewater. After all, $162 billion isn’t nothing.
Burton and Kishan cover hedge funds for Bloomberg News in New York.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.