Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Book Club: My Top 5 Takeaways from Benjamin Franklin - An American Life

Episode Date: September 22, 2017

If you look into the reading habits of extremely successful people, you’ll notice that many of them spend a lot of time reading biographies and autobiographies. For example, top Nike designer and entrepreneur D’Wayne Edwards attributes much of his unlikely professional success to a biography of Jackie Robinson that inspired him to endure great hardship. Elon Musk has also spoken many times about his love of biographies of brilliant inventors and entrepreneurs, including Howard Hughes, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and, fittingly, Benjamin Franklin. There are several reasons why this type of literature is so popular among overachievers. First, we humans love good stories, and if someone has a book dedicated to his or her life, chances are it’s because they have an unusual and compelling story to tell. Second, biographies are the ultimate in self-improvement literature because they provide you with wide-ranging, raw, and unfiltered information and insights as opposed to carefully chosen and pre-digested morsels. Unlikely most self-help books, biographies aren't making carefully crafted arguments intended to sell you on particular ideas, strategies, or ideologies—they're showing you the real-world results of very different paradigms for thinking and living, which you can then assess and analyze to formulate your own highly individual lessons and takeaways. In this way, a biography is a "choose your own adventure" of sorts, and can resonate in very different ways with each and every reader. So, with that, let's talk about this week's book, which is widely considered to be the definitive biography of Benjamin Franklin, and a book that sits on the "must read" lists of many notable people. I loved it for several reasons: First, I'm a bit of an Isaacson fanboy. He's not only an outstanding researcher, writer, and storyteller, but he has also worked his ass off for decades to hone his craft and establish himself as one of the premier biographers of our times. Second, I think that Franklin was a man worth modeling in many ways. What spoke most to me was his intense curiosity, diligence, persistence, practicality, lightheartedness, congeniality, and relentless drive to improve both his life and the lives of others. The world could use more Franklins. Third, I've always enjoyed American history and the Revolutionary period in particular, and as Franklin played a pivotal role in both the winning of the war and creation of America, I was already inclined to like the book. The bottom line is if you're already into biographies but haven't read this one yet, I promise it won't disappoint. Similarly, if you've never read a biography before and my pitch has sold you on giving it a go, this is a great place to start. Want to be notified when my latest book recommendations go live? Hop on my email list and you’ll get each new installment delivered directly to your inbox. Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, this is Mike from Muscle for Life, and I'm often asked about books. People ask me for book recommendations on various topics. They ask me what book I am currently reading and what books I have recently read and what my favorite books are and so forth. And as an avid reader, I am always happy to oblige and get some book recommendations in return as well. I also just like to encourage people to read as much as possible because I think that knowledge benefits you much like compound interest benefits your bank account in that the more you learn, the more you know, and the more you learn, the more you know,

and the more you know, the more you can do, and the more you can do, the more opportunities you have to succeed. And on the flip side, I also believe that there is little hope for people who aren't perpetual learners. I know that might sound a little bit pessimistic or cynical to you, but let's face it,

life is overwhelmingly complex and chaotic. And if we look around, we can find plenty of evidence that it simply suffocates and devours the lazy and ignorant. So if you are a bookworm and you're on the lookout for good reads, or if you'd like to just get into the habit of reading more, then this book club is for you. The idea is very simple. Every week, I'm going to share a book that I've particularly liked, and I'm going to tell you why I liked it and give you several of my key takeaways from it. I'm also going to keep these episodes short and sweet so you can quickly decide whether or not a book is likely to be up your alley or not.

Now, if you look at the reading habits of extremely successful people, you'll notice that many of them spend a lot of time reading biographies and autobiographies. For example, the top Nike designer and entrepreneur, Dwayne Edwards, attributes much of his rather unlikely professional success to a biography that he read when he was young of Jackie Robinson, the baseball player, that inspired him to endure great hardship and do whatever it takes to succeed. Elon Musk has also spoken many times about his love of biographies of brilliant inventors and entrepreneurs in particular, including Howard Hughes, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and fittingly, Benjamin Franklin.

I don't think that it is a coincidence that this type of literature is so popular among overachievers. I think there are several reasons for this. First, we humans just love good stories, and if someone has a book that's dedicated to his or her life, then chances are it's because they have an unusual and compelling story to tell. Second, I think that biographies are the ultimate in self-improvement literature because they provide you with wide-ranging, raw, and unfiltered information as opposed to pre-digested morsels. Unlike most self-help books, biographies aren't making carefully crafted arguments that are intended to sell you on particular ideas or strategies or ideologies.

They're just showing you the real world results of very different paradigms for thinking and living, paradigms that you can then assess and analyze to formulate your own highly individual lessons and takeaways. In this way, a good biography is like a choose-your-own-adventure of sorts, and it can resonate in very different ways with each and every reader. So with all that in mind, let's now talk about this week's book, which is widely considered to be the definitive biography of Benjamin Franklin and a book that sits on many must-read lists of many notable people. And I love this book for several reasons. First, I'm a bit of an Isaacson fanboy because he's not only an outstanding researcher,

writer, and storyteller, but he's also really worked his ass off for decades to hone his craft and establish himself as one of the premier biographers of our times. And he's also really worked his ass off for decades to hone his craft and establish himself as one of the premier biographers of our times. And he's also had a pretty stellar business career as well. Second, I like this book because I think that Ben Franklin was a man worth modeling in many ways. What spoke most to me was his intense curiosity, diligence, persistence, practicality, lightheartedness, congeniality, and relentless drive to improve both his life and the lives of others. I really do believe that the world could use more Franklins and really could never have enough of these types of people. And so if we can embody just a fraction of his spirit, then minimally the people that are in our orbits

are going to be better for it. And the third reason I really liked the book is I've really always enjoyed American history and the revolutionary period in particular. And as Franklin played a pivotal role in both the winning of the war and the subsequent creation of America, I was already inclined to like the book. So the bottom line is, if you are already into biographies but just haven't read this one yet, then I promise you it will not disappoint. And similarly, if you are not into biographies, or maybe if you've never even read one before, and my pitch has sold you on giving this book a go, I really do think it's a great place to start. on giving this book a go. I really do think it's a great place to start. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because

no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. All right, let's get to my five key takeaways from the book. Here's the first one. at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. All right, let's get to my five key takeaways from the book. Here's the first one. Quote, to pour forth benefits for the common good is divine. And my note here is that Franklin sincerely believed in leading a virtuous life and serving the country that he loved.

And despite what you might hear from some of the more degenerate members of society, many highly accomplished people out there have a very similar philosophy in life. I've met many of these people myself. I've met many very, very successful people, millionaires, multimillionaires, and even a couple billionaires. And one of the first things that has struck me about almost each and every one of them is just how nice and caring these people are and how much they really go out of their way to help others without expecting anything in return. Simply the enjoyment that they get from being of service to others is pay enough. Takeaway number two, let this be a caution to you, not always to hold your head so

high. Stoop, young man, stoop as you go through this world and you'll miss many hard thumps. Many of the overachievers that I've known and that I've read about have been exceedingly humble, so much so that in my personal interactions with some of these people, it has actually made me uncomfortable more than once because their humility made me feel almost arrogant in comparison, which is a pathology that I really don't want to develop. I mean, I'm all for cultivating self-confidence, but there's a big difference between growing as an individual and swelling. Takeaway number three, I would rather have it said, he wrote his mother, he lived usefully than he died rich. According to research conducted by Nobel prize winning scientists at Princeton, the happiness that you derive from making money tends

to level off at around $75,000 per year. So what that means is if you're like most people, as your income rises toward that number, your spirits will also rise. But once you reach it, the effects tend to plateau. In other words, if you go from $35,000 a year to $75,000 per year, yeah, you're probably going to feel quite a bit more happy and cheerful. But if you go from $75,000 a year to $150,000 per year, that's much less likely to positively impact your happiness. Now, why $75,000 you're wondering? Well, here's how the researchers explained it. Quote, more money does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated with emotional pain. Perhaps $75,000 is a threshold

beyond which further increases in income no longer improve individuals' ability to do what matters most to their emotional well-being, such as spending time with people they like, avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure. Another interesting point from this research is they also found that the wealthy were generally more satisfied with their lives than the middle class were, but that this wasn't a function of their wealth per se. Instead, this increased satisfaction stemmed more from what the wealthy had to do to acquire their wealth, the games that they had to play and win at to make the money in the first place. I've experienced a bit of this myself over the last few years as my businesses have grown and

I've become more successful. And I've also seen it in many of the high net worth people that I've had the pleasure of knowing and interacting with over the years. Most of these people realized long ago that there's very little happiness to be found in consumerism and just buying things. And so what many of them have done is they have turned to donating considerable amounts of their time and money to charitable causes that they believe in and also to finding ways to just help people who they like. Takeaway number four, those who met with greater economic success in life were responsible to help those in genuine need. But those who from lack of virtue fail to pull their And my note here is I strongly believe that everyone should have equal access to legal justice and educational opportunity, but I also fundamentally disagree with the notion that able-bodied people should be able to contribute absolutely nothing to society, yet receive its

many benefits in the form of handouts, suffrage, goodwill, and so forth. As Franklin said, people who could offer something of tangible, exchangeable value to the group, but don't simply because they don't feel like it. Well, I think that they should expect nothing in return. Takeaway number five, 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. And my note here is, as you can tell, Franklin felt very strongly about the importance of serving others and of viewing it as a privilege, not a burden. And this is something that I remind myself of regularly.

Remember, our forebears made tremendous sacrifices just so I can sit here and record this and you can sit there and listen to it. And we pay it forward by doing the same, by giving freely and generously of ourselves for the sake of our future generations. this week's book review. I told you I keep it short and sweet. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did and you don't mind doing me a favor, could you please drop a quick review of the podcast on iTunes or wherever you're listening from and leave a comment down below. This helps other people find their way to the show and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new stuff. And lastly, if you didn't like something about this episode or just about the podcast on the whole, then definitely shoot me an email at mikeatmusclelife.com and share your thoughts on how I could make things better.

I read all the emails myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to the episode. Thanks again for listening. And I hope to hear from you soon. Oh, and before you leave, let me quickly tell you about one other product of mine that I think you might like. Specifically, my fitness book for men, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. Now, this book has sold over 350,000 copies in the last several years and has helped thousands of guys build their best bodies ever. And that's why it has over 3000 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average.

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