enjamin Franklin: A Formula for Success
Lydia Sarver
One of the most influential books on success and personal excellence was written more than two hundred years ago, this book was his autobiography. The author, Benjamin Franklin, thought himself to be a simple man of ordinary ability. He started his career as a small, badly in debt printer of Philadelphia. Having an ingenious mind he created a method for success so simple that anyone who had the determination to follow it could also succeed as Franklin did. He felt as if he owed all his success and happiness in life to it, Franklin was an accomplished statesman, inventor, author, scientist, and more. Franklin created The Thirteen Virtues based on his life, and had the intent that for generations Americans would use these virtues for the continued success and fulfillment in life all Americans should strive for.
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Franklin crafted a list of “Thirteen Virtues” which he believed if a person followed them with direct intent they too could be successful much like he was. In his list of virtues he also left his reader with direct ways to follow the said virtue. The first virtue, temperance, was followed by the phrases, “eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.” Franklin began his list of virtues with temperance because it was the virtue that would develop the self-discipline necessary to adhere to the other twelve. Franklin held the belief that one could not master all thirteen virtues at once, but once one does master all thirteen they should also reap in the benefits of