Benjamin Franklin was America's first self-made man. The early
settlers may have come here seeking freedom, but they retained the rigid class
system prevalent in England. Ben Franklin changed that, as he changed so many
other things!
If he was to learn anything, he had to teach himself! If he was to
achieve anything, he had to do it him- self! He INTENSELY BELIEVED that he could-so,
of course, he did!
Born in Boston in 1706, Ben Franklin was the fifteenth of seventeen
children of a poor candlemaker. He had little more than one year of actual schooling!
He taught himself: philosophy, four languages, the classics, writing for publication,
science, finance, politics, diplomacy!
He did all this while also devoting long hours to the urgency of
making a living. And urgent it was. He had to go to work when he was twelve!
When he was seventeen, he left Boston, couldn't find a job in New York, and
went on to Philadelphia-walking most of the way!
He arrived with only a few pennies in his pocket, got a job as a
printer, soon went into business for himself as a publisher-first of a
newspaper, then a magazine-and, by the time he was only forty-two, had made a
fortune and retired from business. Which lust goes to show what you can do with
self-education and self-help if you INTENSELY BELIEVE you can do it!
And succeeding in business was only one of Ben Franklin's many achievements.
After retiring from business at forty-two, he spent the next forty years serving
his government, including twenty-five years negotiating important matters in
England and France.
He debated the British about mishandling their American colonies and
obtained the repeal of the hated Stamp Act, thus postponing the Revolutionary
War for 10 years and giving the American colonies necessary time to organize
and prepare.
Then when the Revolutionary War finally came, Ben Franklin went to France
and first secured sup- plies for the colonies and, later, the open declaration of
war by France as an ally of the colonies.
Franklin's powers of persuasion were so important in the history
of this country and the founding of the original United States-being more responsible
than any others in getting the Constitution ratified by the quarreling States-that
we might profit here by learning how he did it. So here's how:
As a boy, he argued belligerently for his causes. Then he learned what
I have emphasized so strongly in this blog: Argument and pressure create resistance!
He found that the more he argued and the harder he pressed his views, the fewer
people he convinced!
In exactly the same way as now explained in this blog, Ben Franklin
began to ASK questions which would lead to negotiable responses and finally to
the action he wanted. As soon as he stopped arguing and started ASKING, he
became one of the greatest persuaders of all time!
Franklin was the foremost advocate of self- improvement. He INTENSELY
BELIEVED: "God helps those who help themselves." When he was a young
man he started a notebooks with a page headed by each desirable quality he wished
to develop in his character and personality. Then he devoted a week to concentrating
on each one, recording his failures in emphasizing that quality, and deciding
how to improve still more. When he no longer had any personality or character failures
to record in his notebook, he discontinued using it. He later attributed the
great success he achieved to this character-building and personality-development
technique. I highly recommend it to you!
At the early age of fourteen, Franklin INTENSELY BELIEVED he
could be a great writer. So naturally he set about to become one! He copied the
great es- says of famous writers and memorized them to improve his style. He worked
constantly to improve his vocabulary. And so, in his time, Benjamin Franklin
was the best known writer of the English-speaking world. His first great publishing
success was Poor Richards Almanac(k) which he started when he was twenty-six
and which later was credited with being the only printed matter in every
American home.
Franklin's Autobiography is still one of the most widely read of
all books.
He also was a noted scientist and inventor. A leading historian ranks
Franklin with Newton as two of the most important scientists of the modern age.
Every schoolboy knows that Franklin drew electricity from a cloud on a kite string
but few people realize that Ben Franklin wrote one of the first text blogs on electricity.
It was so important it was translated into foreign languages. He was the first to
discover positive and negative electricity, without the knowledge of which
there could be no electrical power today. He gave the world the concepts of the
electrical battery, electrical charge, condenser and conductor. He invented a
simple, safe, lightning rod which became almost a standard household item.
He didn't confine his scientific research and inventions to electricity.
Franklin invented a wood-burning stove which contained a hot-air radiator. These
efficient stoves were widely used for several centuries and still are used
wherever coal or wood-burning stoves are needed to- day. He invented a kitchen stool
that folded over to be- come a step ladder, and a mechanical hand for lifting
objects from high shelves.
Franklin even invented bifocal glasses when he was seventy-eight
years old and needed them himself. He made a study of water and became the pioneer
of hydrodynamics. He also discovered that storms rotate while traveling
forward. He charted the Gulf Stream. He discovered that water will boil at a lower
temperature 126 in thinner air, as at high altitudes. He also discovered that light
colored clothing repels heat and should be worn in the summer and in the tropics.
Franklin organized the first service club in America. In 1743, he
founded the American Philosophical Society which really was a "scientific
Society," a national academy of science, the first national library and museum,
and the first patent office.
He also started the first regular police force, the first fire department,
the first fire insurance company and the great Pennsylvania Hospital. He
founded the college which was later to become the University of Pennsylvania.
Benjamin Franklin did all these things-and many more-because he INTENSELY
BELIEVED he could. And, he greatly increased his achievements by be- coming a
master in the art of persuasion because he used the success principles which now
are given you in this blog!
He early learned, and this blog repeats for emphasis, that arguing
and pressure create resistance. By ASKING questions which lead to negotible
responses, you influence others to do what you want them to do! Franklin used the
technique of ASKING to influence the decisions of great nations to make
possible the very existence of our United States of America and to provide it
with our Constitution which guarantees freedom and justice for all its citizens.
Benjamin
Franklin proved how great is the persuasive power of ASKING! And he proved
that INTENSE BELIEF can overcome all obstacles!
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