Benjamin Franklin started working when he was barely 12. In today’s society, it would be called child labor. His lack of education was compensated by the many hours of reading and writing that he pursued when not working and having conversations and learning from men much older than him .
In his own words, The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. About his life in England when he was 18:
I had by no means improv’d fortune, but I had picked up some very ingenious acquaintance, whose conversation was of great advantage to me, I had read considerably.
Benjamin Franklin, at aged 16, left his family and went to Philadelphia where the currency and bread were different from were he was born. It was like living in another country. His travel adventures, by boats and on foot that took months from Boston to Philadelphia revealed, a young man with great determination and courage. Despite setbacks, severe weather conditions, and lack of money, food, clean clothing and lodging…he made it to his destination with help from strangers and selling some of his collection of books.
Here are few lessons that I learned from his book:
His skills in his trade and ability to read and write were assets for him as he looked for employment in Philadelphia. He was way better than most of his peers in his trade because he had printing skills and could read and write while most of them couldn’t read or lacked skills or did not possess both.
He sought out like-minded people and always formed a mastermind group with them. He always looked for lovers of reading and writing. When he was younger he had a group of like-minded young men who reads and writes and comments on each others writing.
When he was a businessman in the community, he set up a group where they masterminded about books, writings, political issues and community issues.
He equipped himself and always worked hard on himself. When he left London for home he drew out a plan for his life in a journal. He said perhaps the most important part of that journal is the plan…for regulating my future conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, as being formed when I was young, and yet being pretty remarkable adhered to quite thro’ to old age.
He listed 13 virtues and had a strictly followed them through each week with a chart for the week. He said I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successfully…I could go through the course in thirteen weeks.
He had this list as a self improvement chart for himself. The 13 virtues are temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. He marked his progress daily and even had a time management that he called order.
Every hour of the day is allotted time for some activities. These are fascinating daily charts found in his autobiography:
From 5-7 am Rise, wash and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day, prosecute the present study, and breakfast.
From 8-11 Work
From 12-1 Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.
From 2-5 Work
From 6-9 pm put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.
From 10pm -4 am Sleep
This was taken from his autobiography. He said I enter’d upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu’d it with occasional intermissions.I think he was a man who was quite hard on himself…working very hard on himself and others as well. A man of great achievements and had contributed
greatly to this country.After reading this autobiography that focused on his younger years, my thought is, can we raise more Benjamin Franklins in this generation?
Though a man with many faults, his contributions and achievements outweighed them all.
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Great article Claudia! I like this part: "Every hour of the day is allotted time for some activities".
It is a good idea to have – "To do list", this way we can plan our day ahead and this list will help us to complete our tasks. Thank you for this article!