Founders - #115 Ben Franklin: An American Life

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

What I learned from reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---He was, during his 84 year long life, America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist. [0:01]On Founders #62 I covered Ben Franklin’s autobiography [4:10]The family produced dissenters and nonconformists who were willing to defy authority, although not to the point of becoming zealots. They were clever craftsman and inventive blacksmiths with a love of learning. Avid readers and writers, they had deep convictions, but knew how to wear them lightly. [5:00]The industrialist Thomas Mellon, who erected a statue of Franklin in his banks headquarters, declared that Franklin had inspired him to leave his family's farm and go into business. "I regard the reading of Franklin's Autobiography as the turning point of my life. Here was Franklin, poorer than myself, who by industry, thrift, and frugality, had become learned and wise, and elevated to wealth and fame. The maxims of poor Richard exactly suited my sentiments. I read the book again and again, and wondered if I might not do something in the same line by similar means." [13:10]Franklin is learning how to deal with people and to change his behavior to get the outcome he desires: Being argumentative, he concluded, was a very bad habit because contradicting people produced disgusts and perhaps enemies. Later in his life he would wryly say of disputing: "Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it.”[17:50]Ben Franklin understood marketing [22:10]Ben Franklin would tell you to keep reading and learning so you are more interesting to talk to. This produces positive externalities. [23:50]Franklin’s plan for his business and how to overcome an entrenched competitor [30:00]Franklin would tell you it is foolish to avoid all criticism [33:28]The Ben Franklin method for making difficult decisions [34:15]As Franklin is building his business he is focused on self improvement: A list of 12 virtues he thought desirable [35:56]Most of Poor Richard's saying were not totally original as Franklin freely admitted. "They contained the wisdom of many ages and nations. Not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own." / Picasso had a saying good artists copy; great artists steal. we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas --Steve Jobs [38:25]Franklin telling you how to turn adversaries into allies. [41:38]Halfway through his life, Franklin realizes he has enough: "Lost time is never found again." [43:25]—“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us. George Washington was the austere general. Jefferson and Adams were intimidating. But Ben Franklin, that ambitious urban entrepreneur, seems made of flesh rather than of marble. He speaks to us, through his letters and autobiography, not with rhetoric, but with a chattiness and clever irony that is very contemporary. We see his reflection in our own time. He was, during his 84 years, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist. He proved by

flying a kite that lightning was electricity, and he invented a rod to tame it. He devised bifocal glasses and clean-burning stoves, charts of the Gulf Stream, and theories about the contagious nature of the common cold. He launched various civic improvement schemes, such as a lending library, college, volunteer fire corps, insurance association, and a matching grant fundraiser. He helped invent America's unique style of homespun humor and philosophical pragmatism. And in politics, he proposed seminal plans for uniting the colonies and creating a federal model for a national government.

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity. Partly, it was a matter of image. As a young printer in Philadelphia,

he carted rolls of paper through the streets to give the appearance of being industrious. As an old diplomat in France, he wore a fur cap to portray the role of backwoods sage. In between he created an image for himself as a simple yet striving tradesman, assiduously honing the virtues of diligence, frugality, honesty, of a good shopkeeper and a beneficial member of his community. But the image he created was rooted in reality. Born and bred a member of the leather and apron class, Franklin was more comfortable

with the artisans and thinkers than with the established elite, and he was allergic to the pomps and perks of a hereditary aristocracy. Throughout his life he would refer to himself as B. Franklin, printer. The complex interplay among various facets of Franklin's character, his ingenuity and unreflective wisdom, his Protestant ethic divorced from dogma, the principles he held firm and those he was willing to compromise, means that each new look at him reflects and refracts the nation's changing values. He has been vilified in romantic periods and lionized in entrepreneurial ones. Each era appraises him anew and in in doing so, reveals some assessment of itself. Whatever view one takes, it is useful to engage anew with Franklin,

for in doing so, we are grappling with a fundamental issue. How does one live a life that is useful, virtuous, worthy, and spiritually meaningful? That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Ben Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson. Okay, so I want to start telling you about Benjamin Franklin's personality. So I pulled out a bunch of quotes that are spread throughout the book. This is the third biography I've read of Isaacson. It's impossible for him to write a short book. So this is going to be very different. Back on Founders number 62,

I covered the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. That's a quick read. This one is much more detailed. So if you're a longtime listener to the podcast, you already know that because back on Founders number five, I covered Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. That's a very long book. Same with Founders No. 15, the biography that Isaacson wrote on Leonardo da Vinci.

So I had to make some decisions on what I was going to focus on. And so I'm going to focus on the personality, so you have an understanding of who Benjamin Franklin was as a person, some key ideas that he picked up through the experience of his very long life. But mainly the focus of his very long life. But mainly the focus of this podcast is going to be on Franklin the entrepreneur. So let's get right into it. I'm going to start with the personality.

So first, I want to give you some background. What are the personality traits of the Franklin family? And it says, the family produced dissenters and nonconformists who were willing to defy authority, although not to the point of becoming zealots. They were clever craftsmen and inventive blacksmiths with a love of learning. They were avid readers and writers, and they had deep convictions but knew how to wear them lightly. So that's the family that he was born into. You'll see that he's picked up and kept a lot of those personality traits and then added some that are uniquely his own. So this is a description of a young Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin was skeptical, puckish, curious, irreverent. Anecdotes about his youthful intellect and impish nature abound. He had an allergy to authority. So an allergy to authority from a very young age. And knowing what we know about him as, you know, one of the founding fathers and playing key roles in the American Revolution, that's something he kept to the day he died. So I'm going to talk to you more about Ben Franklin, the entrepreneur, but what made him world famous wasn't his business acumen or the fact that he was a gifted business strategist, which he was. It was his scientific and political achievements. So here's a little bit of his personality regarding his scientific achievements.

Unlike in some of his other pursuits, he was not driven by financial motives, meaning why he chose to conduct the scientific experiments that he chose to conduct. He declined to patent his famous inventions, and he took pleasure in freely sharing his findings. Nor was he motivated by the quest for the purely practical. Franklin declined a lucrative patent, and here's Franklin writing why. As we enjoy great advantages from the invention of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. A little bit more about how he approached his scientific work. It says Franklin's scientific work was distinguished less for its abstract

theoretical sophistication than for its focus on finding out facts and putting them to use. Back to him as a person. He says, Franklin was allergic to anything smacking of dogma. What made him a bit of a rebel was his inbred resistance to establishment authority. So that's something that's remarked on over and over again in the book. Let me give you an example of that. In the note I left myself on this page, it was a good thing that Ben did not listen to him. His father had, this is a quote from the book, his father had limited horizons. He tended to dampen his son's educational and professional aspirations. So Ben Franklin was known for to be extremely ambitious, and he displayed that trait even as a young child.

And we have an example here where his father is saying, no, no, no, lower your expectations for life. Just pick something simple. Do not try to live a large life. And, you know, Ben has an inbred resistance to establishment authority. He did not like other people telling him what to do. Continue. He was not awed by rank. He liked to be among people with lively minds and simple virtues, and he had an inbred aversion to powerful establishments and idle elites.

Continue on another page. His usual pragmatic instincts fell prey to sentiments he had once tried to train himself to avoid. So this is talking about the traits that sometimes he would relapse on, but he did not like in himself and others, such as bitterness, pride, emotionalism, and political fervor. It was in his nature to be a smooth operator rather than a revolutionary, which is kind of hilarious considering he was a revolutionary. And I'll talk more about the lessons he learned on how to deal with people. He was indeed a rather smooth operator, and he learned on how to do that by studying human

nature. He liked witty discussion. He hated disorder and mob behavior. He had a fundamental moral belief that action should be judged by how much they benefit the common good. Policies that encourage hard work were good, but not because they led to great accumulations of private wealth. They were good because they increased the total well-being of a community and the dignity of every aspiring individual. And I think later on in the book, the second half of the book, is all about his scientific and political achievements and the huge role he played in the founding of America. And to give you an idea, so I'm going to give you a quick paragraph from this time period.

This is why he wanted the rattlesnake as a symbol of America's fight against Britain. And the reason I bring this up is because it's going to give you an idea of the traits that Franklin admired in others, traits that he wanted in himself and he wanted to see in others. And this is him writing. He says, the rattlesnake had no eyelids and may therefore be an esteemed emblem of vigilance. It also never initiated an attack nor surrendered once engaged and is therefore an emblem of true courage. So he's telling us keep our eyes open, always maintain vigilance, never initiate attack, but if you are attacked, don't surrender once engaged,

and then have courage and then finally i'll end the personality section with a description of that comes from abigail adams that's john adams wife when she was writing to her husband describing her opinion of benjamin franklin and even though john and franklin they had a lot of respect for each other, but they were adversaries in large part. So this is his wife writing, says, when he spoke, something useful dropped from his tongue. Okay, so before I get into B. Franklin, the entrepreneur, I love the fact that his entire life, that's how he wanted to be described. I'm just a printer. He had a deep, undying respect for tradesmen, for entrepreneurs, for artisans. He wanted to build a strong middle class in America,

full of people that were making and creating and selling their own goods. But a fundamental important thing to understand about Franklin is the level of influence that he, that his life had. He might be the single most influential person I have ever covered on the podcast. You can draw almost a straight line between the people that we've talked about and analyzed together. A number of them were directly influenced by Benjamin Franklin. There was a number of things that had to happen before I got the idea to do Founders and to focus on reading the biographies of entrepreneurs. One of those things that happened years ago, I was watching an interview on this podcast called Foundation. It was created by this guy named Kevin Rose, and he was interviewing Elon Musk.

And he asked Elon Musk, he was awed at the story. Like, how do you come, how did you emigrate from South Africa to Canada and then wind up in California and then at a very early age start building all these businesses? And he's like, did you read a bunch of business books to learn?

Like, how did you figure this out? And Elon said something that stuck with me to this day. And he's like, I didn't read business books. I read biographies. I thought those were helpful. And specifically, he referenced his admiration for Benjamin Franklin. He said Benjamin Franklin was a huge inspiration of him. He read both the autobiography of Franklin and the biography by Isaacson.

And so that idea stuck in my mind. And a few years later, I started doing Founders. So Elon, a bunch of people that I've covered on the podcast, Elon being one of them, Charlie Munger, Benjamin Franklin had a huge influence on his thinking. Andrew Carnegie, there's a person that I'm going to do a two-part series on in the near future, this guy named Thomas Mellon and his son, Andrew Mellon. You might know that last name because of Carnegie Mellon University. So here's what Thomas Mellon. You might know that last name because of Carnegie Mellon University. So here is what Thomas Mellon said about how Benjamin Franklin inspired him and influenced his life.

This is towards the back of this book, and it says, the industrialist Thomas Mellon, who erected a statue of Franklin in his bank's headquarters, declared that Franklin had inspired him to leave his family's farm and go into business. Now this is a direct quote from Thomas Mellon. I regard the reading of Franklin's autobiography as the turning point of my life. Here was Franklin, poorer than myself, who by industry, thrift, and frugality had become learned and wise

and elevated to wealth and fame. The maxims of poor Richard, which is something that Franklin wrote, exactly suited my sentiments. I read the book again and again and wondered if I might not do something in the same line by similar means. Okay, so that's his personality. That's the influence he had. Now let's get into his early life and let's talk about how he becomes be Franklin the entrepreneur So he starts working full-time at the age of 10 and eventually he starts on a trade that he hates But this leads him to finding a trade that he loves it says at age 10, but with two years of schooling Franklin went to work full-time in his father's candle and soap shop. It was not pleasant work. He hated it. His father took him

on long walks throughout Boston to see other craftsmen. This instilled in Franklin a lifelong appreciation for craftsmen. At age 12, Franklin ended up apprenticing to his brother James, who was a printer. It's important to know the age difference between his brother at this time. James is 21, Ben Franklin is 12. James very much treated...Ben's description of this time in his life is that the harsh tyranny under his older brother, where he was treated as essentially a child, influenced him to have this aversion to authority that he kept for the rest of his life. Now, there is something fascinating about the time at a very young age, apprenticing to his brother who's a printer, Ben Franklin learns something from studying the newspaper industry that's still true 300 years later. And it says, then as today,

there was an advantage in the media business to controlling both content and distribution. So he picks up on that from a very young age. And that's the way to think about Ben Franklin, which is, Isaacson explicitly says this. You have to think about Franklin as a person who built, he essentially built a media conglomerate, but he's doing it in the 1700s. All right, this is what Ben learns from reading, which becomes true in his life, that individuals can change the world for the better. It's also a fundamental part of his personality, his love and evangelism of reading and writing. From a child, I was fond of reading, he recalled, and all the little money

that came into my hands was laid out in books. This is what he says. He doesn't mince words about this. Books were the most important formative influence in his life. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night. Why did he have to do that? Because the book was borrowed in the evening and had to be returned early in the morning lest it should be missed or wanted. So he talks about there is he became friends with booksellers. And so he didn't have any money and many times to buy books. But they said, hey, as long as you don't mess up the pages, don't leave any marks. You can read the book after the book store closes, but has to be returned in the morning.

One of the books that had a huge influence on his life was this book written by this guy named Bunyan. So it says, a central theme of Bunyan's book and of Franklin's life was the concept that individuals and humanity in general move forward and improve based on a steady increase of knowledge and the wisdom that comes from conquering adversity. I think those are two main themes that is talked about all the time in this podcast. Another Franklin favorite, meaning book, was based on the premise that individual endeavor can change the course of history for the better. So think about how crazy it is. As a young child, he's exposing himself to these stories. He's reading about that. He's learning that lesson, that individual endeavor can change

the course of history for the better. Is that not a description of Ben Franklin's life? It's why we're still talking about him over 300 years later. So through reading and through interacting with people, he comes, he just comes across with a lot of ideas. And there's a lot of ideas that are in this book that I need to work on and to learn for myself. So I'm going to share a couple with them.

The note I left myself was, Franklin is learning how to deal with people and to change his behavior to get the outcome he desires. So a lot of the sources for this book is notes that Franklin wrote for himself. Now, he published a ton, a ton of his thoughts, maybe more so than anybody else that we've covered so far on the podcast, but he also has some private journals that we are now privy to, and so this is him reflecting on that. He says, he's talking to himself, which is interesting.

Being argumentative, he concluded, was a very bad habit because by contradicting people when you contradict people you produce disgusts and perhaps enemies remember a main tenant of Franklin's personalities he did not like confrontation later in his life he would Riley say of disputing persons of good sense I have since observed seldom fall into it instead after stumbling across books that extolled Socrates' method of building an argument through gentle queries, he, that's a direct quote from Franklin, dropped my abrupt contradiction style of argument and put on the humbler inquire of the Socratic method. I know that idea. I have internalized that idea. And sometimes in my

behavior, I don't express that idea. So I'm definitely something that I agree that Franklin's right and something I want to change my behavior as well. I think he's 100% right. He was a very, what we're going to see a lot today. And when you study the life of Ben Franklin, he was a master of human nature. He studied and observed human nature relentlessly. So he says, by asking what seemed to be innocent questions, Franklin would draw people into making concessions that would gradually prove whatever point he was trying to assert. He continued to favor gentle indirection rather than confrontation. Okay, so at this point, something that Elon would reference in that podcast I was watching many years ago was the fact that, you know, Franklin was just this runaway poor kid.

And so that's how Franklin is known throughout history, being a runaway. So why did he run away? So the note I left myself, Franklin, the juvenile delinquent, runs away. What I'm referencing there, of course, is the quote by the wise and eccentric founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard. In his book, Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon says that if you want to understand the entrepreneur, you should study the juvenile delinquent

because he is saying, meaning the entrepreneur, is saying with his actions, this sucks, I'm going to do my own thing. So we have Yvonne saying that, you know, in present day, and now we're going to see the actions of Franklin expressing that. And he's talking about the fact that he ran away because he couldn't deal with the tyranny that he was experiencing from his older brother. He says, I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be the means of impressing with me that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me throughout my whole life.

Continuing, Franklin was a different type of American rebel. At this time in history, a lot of rebels are going out into the frontier, the wilderness. They want to see what's on the other side of that, of the wilderness. It says, he's a different type of American rebel. The wilderness did not beckon. Instead, he was enticed by the new commercial centers, New York and Philadelphia, that offered the chance to become a self-made success.

So he couldn't deal with the harsh treatment of his brother. He takes off to New York looking for opportunity. He meets another person there that says, hey, my son's a printer in Philadelphia. You should go to Philadelphia. And that's what he does. But keep in mind, he ran away and didn't tell anybody where he was going. For months, his family, they didn't even know if he was still alive. He eventually goes back, I think like seven months later, to visit and let them know he's okay.

Now, I'm going to fast forward. It's during this time in Philadelphia that he's like, okay, I'm 17, 18, 19 years old. I have no money, no education. Remember he had two years of formal schooling. Now granted, no one was going to say that Ben Franklin's not an educated person, but it was all self-directed. He had his own personal curriculum. Okay. And so this time he has a series of jobs. And during these series of jobs, he starts to pick up on fundamental lessons that he uses to build his successful business. And so the note I left myself on this page is Ben Franklin understood marketing. You're going to see what I mean when I read this section to you. American individualists sometimes boast of not worrying about what others think of them.

Franklin largely did the opposite, and here's why. Franklin nurtured his reputation as a matter of both pride and utility. Remember, his personality is he's looking for information for pragmatic reasons. He has a love of learning, but he wants to apply what he's learning. So he says, he's talking about the utility of a personal reputation. He says, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. This is marketing. Especially in his early years as a tradesman, he was a self-created and self-willed man who moved through life at a calculated pace towards calculated ends.

So I'm reading this section. I thought of something that I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger say one time, and he has this phrase that he says, work like hell and advertise. What does he mean when he says that? He means you need to put in, you need to work really hard. That's what Arnold would tell you, right? You need to work really hard, but after the work is done, you need to tell people that your work exists and what you're doing. So a good way to summarize that section about Franklin understanding, hey, there's a utility in not only being industrious in real life, but having other people know that you're industrious.

200, 300 years later, Arnold Schwarzenegger has his own version of that. Work like hell and advertise. Ben Franklin would also tell you that you need to keep learning, keep reading, and keep learning so you're more interesting to talk to. This produces positive externalities. This is also like more of an abstraction. I don't think other people that don't read and continue to learn at the rate I think you and I do, don't understand. You are a fundamentally more interesting person to talk to if you have a unique set of knowledge that you can share with other people. And this will indeed, just like in Benjamin Franklin's time, I'm about to read to you how this has produced positive externalities, it still does the same thing today. So it says, once again, it was young Franklin, the willing and witty conversationalist

rather than his slovenly master who befriended the dignitary. So what I'm talking about there is he's working for another printer. Let's say at this time, there's something like 60,000 people in the city of Philadelphia. So it's a very small city compared to, you know, today. And so there's two printers. Eventually, Franklin's going to be the third, and he's going to make it his goal to eliminate the other two. And part of the reason he has confidence, not only is he full of self-confidence, if you read his writings, that jumps off the page, but it's because he worked for people like this guy named Khymer who winds up his business fails and he runs off to Barbados with a bunch of unpaid

debts because he realized like if this is my competition these people stand no chance because they're very sloppy so in this case even though climbers already established in business in the community and much older than Franklin people that come into his print shop are so enthralled with, like, the mind of Ben Franklin, they start inviting him over, he starts meeting all these other people, and some of these people are extremely powerful, and they, they, they altered the trajectory of his life, so it says, uh, it was for young Franklin who befriended the dignitaries, this is Benjamin Franklin telling you and I why, my mind having been much more improved by reading than kimers remember that's

his boss at the time i suppose it was for that reason my conversations seemed more valued they had me over to their houses they introduced me introduced me to their friends and they showed me much civility now one of these people's people that he impresses with his conversational skills and his witty mind is his friend's father. Now, the reason Franklin is able to leave the employ of Keimer and start his own business is because Franklin's business is funded because his partner's father was fond of him. Now, when I'm reading this section, the note I left myself is, okay, that's a positive actionality from all the self-learning that Franklin did but I'm gonna read you one of my favorite quotes I think about all the time and I want you to think about this as I read you

this section and it says mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it one more timeiocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. So it says, their business succeeded largely because of Franklin's diligence. This industry, visible, this is now Franklin writing to us, this industry, meaning his, visible to our neighbors began to give us character and credit. So he's talking about within the community. One of the town's prominent merchants told members of his club, his, visible to our neighbors, began to give us character and credit. So he's talking about within the community. One of the town's prominent merchants told members of his club, so this time it's very common to have these group of entrepreneurs, craftsmen, trademans, they would

come and meet together on a weekly basis. In fact, Franklin starts his own version of this called the Junto, and I think if I found that out after I named our version of this the Misfit Feed, I think the Junto would be even a better name because it really describes what we're doing here. So anyways, they'd get together and they'd trade notes on what they learned. And hopefully that information would be valuable to their lives. So at one of these meetings, Franklin becomes a subject even before he's a member. So it says, one of the town's prominent merchants told members of his club, the industry of that Franklin is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind.

Remember, passion, mediocrity is invisible until passion shows up, exposes it. Franklin's passion is exposing Keimer's mediocrity. The industry of that Franklin is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind. I still see him at work when I go home, and he's at work again before his neighbors are out of bed. Franklin became an apostle of being, and just as important, of appearing to be, industrious. Remember, these quotes are coming from vastly different pages.

This is repeated over and over and over again, and if something's repeated over and over again, that's a good indication that the author is telling us it's important. Even after he became successful, he made a show of personally carting the rolls of paper he bought in a wheelbarrow down the street to his shop rather than having a hired hand do it. So what they're doing is they're comparing and contrasting Franklin's strategy, and it indeed was a strategy, with that of his opponents. When they're working by themselves, they're going to cart their own rolls of paper. Eventually, they make enough money, they hire help, and then they have somebody else do it.

Franklin, at this point, was already financially successful enough and had help. He still did it. Why? Because he understood the positive externalities of other humans seeing him work. And so now this one guy, I forgot his name. I don't even know what they named. They just call him one of the town's prominent merchants, sees this and then he goes and he starts spreading the words to other humans. And as a result, he's increasing Franklin's reputation in their community.

It's extremely valuable over the long term. It's part of the reason, it's not just that Franklin was unbelievably talented there's a million unbelievably talented people it's that he he took he understood he took action to make sure that that was spread by the time Benjamin Franklin dies he is by far the world's most famous American by far okay so now Franklin is already running his print businesses this time eventually the partner that he has, the one that the father gave them the initial funding for the business, he falls back into like a series of alcoholism and he leaves the city. So now Franklin's just running the business by himself. So this is Franklin's plan for his business on how to overcome an entrenched competitor.

So he's got two competitors. Clymer is, you know, a competitor. So he's got two competitors. Clymer is a scrub. He's not worried about him. But he is worried about Andrew Bradford. And this is why. This is a person that is running the town's only other newspaper outside of—he's also a printer as well. But his competitor, Andrew Bradford, published the town's only newspaper. Bradford was also the postmaster.

Remember the insight that Franklin had as a young boy? Hey, if I'm building a media business, not only do I have to worry about content, I have to worry about distribution. Bradford knew that. That's why he's the postmaster. 1700s, how are they getting their information out? So it says, he was also the postmaster, which gave him some control over what papers got distributed. Franklin decided to take Bradford on. Over the next decade, he would succeed by building a media conglomerate that included production capacity, and I'm going to define each of these terms. Production capacity, that means his printing, his operations, and his franchise printers in other cities. This is all a genius strategy by Franklin. His production capacity, his products,

these are the products that Franklin built, a newspaper, a magazine, an almanac. So again, back, I think it was like somewhere in the 90s and founders, I did a few, I think I've done three podcasts on Charlie Munger. One of those was on this giant textbook-sized book called Poor Charlie's Almanac. Why is it called Poor Charlie's Almanac? Because one of Charlie Munger's heroes, think about how crazy this is. If you ask almost any entrepreneur alive right now that know of Charlie Munger, they're going to tell you about their deep appreciation for his mind and his ideas and the fact that he spends so much of his time teaching his ideas, right?

So they're influenced by Charlie. Charlie was influenced by Benjamin Franklin so much that the main containment of all of Charlie Munger's ideas is named Poor Charlie's Almanac because Benjamin Franklin named his almanac Poor Richard's almanac. He would sell at its peak 10,000 copies of poor Richard's almanac every year in a community with somewhere around 60,000 people. That level of penetration. So like on a per capita basis, that's like somebody selling today, if they lived in America, like 50 million copies of their writings every year. That's insane. All right. So that's one of his products, his content. So you have your production capacity, his products. Now they're talking about his content, which is his own writings, his alter ego, which is poor Richard and a bunch of other, he wrote on a bunch of other pseudonymous i don't know how to pronounce that word um names and distribution now i bring that up what does that mean he eventually he

takes over the whole of the entire colonial post system not just in philadelphia the entire this is after the obviously they go to war with Britain. The entire colonial post system. So let me read that whole thing without the definitions in there. Over the next decade, he would succeed by building a media conglomerate that included production capacity, products, content, and distribution. Benjamin Franklin was completely vertically integrated in the 1700s. Okay. Now some ideas directly from Franklin. Franklin would tell you that it's foolish to avoid all criticism.

So he's writing to somebody about this idea. Franklin ended with a fable about a father and son traveling with a donkey. When the father rode and made his son walk, they were criticized by those they met. Likewise, they were criticized when the son rode the donkey and the father walked. They were also criticized when they both rode the donkey, and they were also criticized when neither rode the donkey. So finally, they decided to throw the donkey off a bridge. The moral, according to Franklin, was it is foolish to try to avoid all criticism. That's just a fundamental understanding of human nature.

I love this idea. I heard about this idea years before I even read a book about Ben Franklin. It's called, it's the Ben Franklin Method for Making Difficult Decisions. And he's describing this method to us. My way is to divide a paper into two columns, writing over one column, pro, and the other column, con. Then he would list all the arguments on each side and weigh how important each was. This is a description of that.

Where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason, pro, that is equal to two reasons on the con column, I strike out both out. If I find a reason pro that is equal to two reasons on the con column, I strike out all three. And then this is the main takeaway. By this bookkeeper's calculus, it became clear to him where the balance lies. I think I have to bring up, it's important, you know, to note, Ben Franklin had one of the most remarkable lives in human history. If you add up just all the experiences he was exposed to, it's unbelievable, but it's not all good. Charlie Munger once said that if you live long enough, bad things will happen to you.

This is an example of that. In one of the few searing tragedies of Franklin's life, his son Frankie died of smallpox just after his fourth birthday. On his grave, Franklin chose a simple epitaph, the delight to all who knew him. The memory of Frankie caused painful reflections. When his sister wrote to him with happy news about grandsons, Franklin responded that it brings often afresh to my mind the idea of my son Frankie, though now dead 36 years, whom to this day I cannot think of without a sigh. As Franklin is building his business, he's focused on self-improvement. So Franklin, when I was describing bits about his personality to you, he says he didn't like disorder. So from a very young age to when he was almost dead, he would write out these lists, sometimes to himself, sometimes to others, with great detail how he wanted certain things handled. he's like, okay, clearly any small percentage of improvement that I do to myself will pay dividends in my business, right? That's just kind of common sense. And to make sure that he constantly applied

what he was learning, he would write lessons to himself. And so he builds this list. He made a list of 12 virtues that he thought desirable, and I'm going to read them to you. And then after each virtue that he wanted to have, he gave a short description on it. So I'm just going to read them to you. And then after each virtue that he wanted to have, he gave a short description on it. So I'm just going to go through each one now. The first one, temperance. Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. Order. Let all things have their places. This is really interesting. Let each part of your business have its time. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. So again,

just keep in mind, he's writing to himself. This eventually becomes public, but he's writing to himself. Frugality. Waste nothing. Industry. Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit. Justice, wrong none by doing injuries. Moderation, avoid extremes. Cleanliness, tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. Tranquility, be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring. Okay, so now I want to go over some maxims that were from poor Richard's Almanac.

When I was reading this section, I'm going to read some maxims to you, but before I want you to understand Franklin's view on this. When I read this section, I thought of this famous quote by Steve Jobs. He said, this is Steve Jobs talking now, he says, Picasso had a good saying, good artists copy, great artists steal. We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. Well, Ben Franklin, I think, if we had a chance to talk to him today, he would probably agree with that sentiment. So it says, most of poor Richard's sayings were not totally original

as Franklin freely admitted. This is Franklin describing what he wrote about in Poor Richard's Almanac. They contain the wisdom of many ages and nations. Not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own. So essentially he's saying, I'm just a conduit. I'm taking great ideas throughout human history. He rewrites a bunch of them, presents them in a different manner, but he's like, I'm spreading the word. I'm not saying I invented these. It says, even though most of the maxims were adopted from others, they offer insights into his notions of what was useful and amusing.

And now here is where Isaacson pulls out some of the ones that he he feels he says among the best are so these are the ones he likes but he's giving this uh he's writing this because they he uh he just told us the reason they offer insights into notions of what franklin thought was useful and amusing so i'm just going to read them obviously maxims and aphorisms they lose some of their charm if you describe them so i'm just going to read them to you. He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir. Eat to live and not live to eat. He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.

Necessity never made a good bargain. A good example is the best sermon. None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing. When the well is dry, we know the worth of the water. The sleeping fox catches no poultry. Diligence is the mother of good luck. He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one and lets the other Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. Kings and bears often worry their keepers. Haste makes waste.

He's a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom. Vice knows that she is ugly, so she puts on a mask. Love your enemies, for they will tell you your faults. Genius without education is like silver in the mine. There was never a good knife made of bad steel. Half the truth is often a great lie. And finally, God helps them that helps themselves. Okay, so this next part is Franklin telling you how to turn adversaries into allies.

This is another example of him mastering human nature. It taught him a useful trick for seducing opponents. After one rich and well-bred member spoke out against him, Franklin decided to win him over. This is Franklin describing how he did that. I did not aim at gaining his favor by paying any servile respect to him, but took this other method. Having heard his library contained a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote him a note to him but took this other method having heard his library contained a certain very scarce and curious book i wrote him a note to him expressing my desire of perusing that book and requesting he would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few days he sent it immediately i returned it in a week in about a week with another note expressing strongly my sense of the favor. When we next met, he spoke

to me, which he had never done before, with great civility, and ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued until his death. This is another instance. This is Ben still writing here. This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim that I learned, which says, he that once has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged. So over a two-decade period, Franklin uses everything he learns from reading, from talking to others, from studying human nature,

and he uses those lessons to build a massively successful, arguably the most successful printing business of his time. And I guess, more accurate, the media conglomerate of his time but what I found most interesting was that halfway through his life Franklin realizes he has enough so this is how that happens and why Franklin's print shop had then grown into a successful vertically integrated media conglomerate he had built a network of profitable partnerships and franchises from Newport and New York to Charleston and Antigua. Money flowed in, much of which he invested quite wisely in Philadelphia property. Accumulating money, however, was not Franklin's

goal. This is him writing. He says, I would rather have it said he lived usefully than he died rich. So in 1748, at age 42, which would turn out to be precisely the midpoint of his life, he retired and turned over the operation of his printing business to his foreman. The detailed partnership deal Franklin drew up would leave him rich enough by most people's standards. It also provided him with half of the shop's profits for the next 18 years. He saw no reason to keep plying his trade to make even more. Now he would have, as he wrote, leisure to read, study, make experiments, and converse at large with such ingenious and worthy men as are pleased to honor me with their friendship. Franklin was not inspiring by his retirement to become merely an idle gentleman

of leisure. He left his print shop because he was, in fact, eager to focus his undiminished ambition on other pursuits that beckoned. First science, then politics, then diplomacy and statecraft. As poor Richard said in his almanac that year, lost time is never found again. And I'll leave the story there. If you buy the book using the link that's in the show notes, you'll be supporting the author and

the podcast, and I'll talk to you again soon.