The Life of Ben Franklin: America’s First Financial Guru Turns 300!
by Mark Skousen, Chairman, Investment U
Monday, January 9, 2006: Issue #501
Tuesday, January 17, is a big day for Investment U and America: It’s the day we’re celebrating the life of Ben Franklin on his 300th birthday.
Over the next week, we are planning several important events at Investment U to honor and learn from this wise ol’ man whose face rightly belongs on the $100 bill. (More details below.)
Ask about anything: his sex life, the stock market, the war in Iraq, what he thought of John Adams and George Washington, you name it This is totally legit. I can’t reveal the technique we use to perform this astonishing feat, but it is real and you won’t believe it until you see it. And it’s free to Investment U subscribers.
Ben Franklin: the Founder of America’s Growth Machine
Why Ben Franklin? Because of all the Founding Fathers, he’s the one most responsible for our financial prosperity. He was America’s first financial guru, and wrote the first successful “self improvement” book (his autobiography). Business luminaries from Andrew Carnegie to Warren Buffett have sworn by Franklin’s good counsel.
Ben Franklin succeeded like no other. He built a fortune from scratch and is the only Founding Father to make the Wealthy 100, the wealthiest Americans of all time. One historian calls him “the most versatile genius in all history.” More than Adams, Jefferson or Washington, Ben Franklin improved the daily lives of citizens with his Franklin stove, lightning rod, bifocals and Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Politically, Franklin should be called the “co-father” of the nation. Washington won the war at home, but Franklin won the war abroad. Without Franklin’s brilliant diplomacy, the French would never have provided the military and financial aid – more than $1 billion! – essential to achieve American independence from the British. (In fact, Franklin’s fundraising was so successful that the French government went bankrupt a few years later and caused the French Revolution!)
Ben Franklin also lived longer than any of his founders to the glorious age of 84. He continued to influence all Americans after he died in 1790, with the publication of his famed memoirs, the most popular autobiography ever written, and the nation’s first “self-help” book, The Way to Wealth.
Three Ben Franklin Events from Investment U
Here’s what we have planned for you over the next week:
- I have written a special in-depth report, due out this Thursday, on Ben Franklin’s three rules of financial success, and how you can apply them to your investment portfolio today. Despite living during a brutal war and suffering numerous personal and financial setbacks, Franklin died a very rich man. We’ll show you how he survived and prospered.
- On Tuesday, January 17, Franklin’s 300th birthday, I have arranged through a new IT technology to interview Ben Franklin himself! And you get to ask him any question you wish.
- Last, but not least, we have available for the first time a most amazing achievement: Franklin has finished his famous autobiography, 215 years after his death.
Well okay so he had a little help from me! I happen to be an eighth-generation direct descendant of “Grandpa Ben” and have had a strong interest in his life and achievements. Over the past year, I compiled and edited his Compleated Autobiography, drawing upon thousands of Franklin’s personal correspondence and journals. It proved to be the most creative and rewarding project of my life. I think ol’ Ben would be proud that one of his ancestors finished his story
Franklin was so busy throughout his adult life that he never finished his life story. The original autobiography ends abruptly in 1757, when Franklin was only 51. Yet, he lived another 33 dramatic years, some of the most eventful in American history, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence, his nine-year stint as minister to France, and his role as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.You see, Franklin has the strongest drive of any man alive in the 18th century. Franklin took to heart Poor Richard’s refrain, “Drive thy business!”
Franklin, who had been a widower when his wife Deborah died in 1774, proposed marriage to Madam Helvetius, but was turned down. But he was no lecher, despite all the rumors. Historians say there is no evidence that Franklin sired multiple children out of wedlock, as his contemporary critics maintained. He had only one illegitimate son, William, whose relationship became embittered after William became a British royalist during the American Revolution.
Ultimately, Franklin became deeply religious because of this “miracle,” and he would later write, “I have lived a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men!” He had no doubt in his mind that Providence had preserved his long life to witness the creation of the United States, a nation destined for greatness and the “cause of all mankind” – freedom.The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin is published by Regnery and is now available. It isn’t often that you get a chance to buy a first edition of a book written by a founding father for only $18.45. It won’t last long. Buy it today!
I thought it was high time that Americans heard the “rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would say. And what a story it is!
The “Secret” to His Many Achievements
In compiling and editing Franklin’s private letters and diaries, I discovered the source of Franklin’s incredible success story. It’s what the French call savoir, as in savoir-faire and savoir-vivre. The words are hard to translate, but essentially they mean “practical know-how” and “good manners.”
Franklin was driven to achieve success in business, politics, and human relations, and he mastered the techniques of success. He was a creative genius. In business, he worked longer hours than his fellow printers He kept ahead of his competition in new printing techniques and introduced better products, such as the annual farmer’s almanac, which he improved upon.
Throughout his life and writings, he did more than anyone else to lay the groundwork for how to build wealth in our emerging nation. He chronicled much of his business success in his autobiography, thus creating the first “rags to riches” story in American history.
In his Advice to a Young Tradesman, he wrote, “In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything.”
Franklin’s Most Successful Method
But the most successful method was his ability to communicate and develop strong personal relationships. In Philadelphia, he created the Junto, a club of artisans that met Friday evenings to socialize and debate “morals, politics or natural philosophy.” He developed a strategy to befriend everyone, including his enemies, by avoiding dogmatic views and speaking ill of others, and maintaining a degree of humility. “Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults,” explained Poor Richard. “A true friend is your best possession.”
Franklin succeeded in politics because he focused on projects that everyone supported. Who could oppose the building of a hospital, a college, or fire insurance company or a library? “A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar,” says Poor Richard. And: “A good example is the best sermon.”
Franklin’s Magnetic Personality
People of all walks of life were naturally attracted to him. Of all the Founding Fathers, only Franklin is approachable, somebody you could sit down and have a beer with. Washington was too aloof, Adams was too dogmatic and Jefferson was too intimidating. Only Franklin could say, “I love company, a chat, a laugh, a glass, and even a song, and relish the grave observations and wise sentences of old men’s conversations.”
And it wasn’t just men who enjoyed Franklin’s company. Women, in particular, were mesmerized by Franklin. While ambassador to France, Franklin developed a close friendship with Madam Brillion, Madam Helvetius and many other women. Jefferson observed him to be in a “frenzy” around women. The Puritans John and Abigail Adams found the French ladies’ behavior around the old man “disgusting.”
The American Revolution Was a “Miracle in Human Affairs”
If Franklin’s Compleated Autobiography reveals anything, it tells a miraculous story of American independence and the critical role Franklin played in it. “The whole affair of this business,” he wrote, “was such a miracle in human affairs, that if I had not been in the midst of it, and seen all the movements, I could not have comprehended how it was effected.”
At the end of the War for Independence, Franklin was optimistic about this new nation: “America will, with God’s blessing, become a great and happy country.” He was right. And we have Ben Franklin and the other great Founding Fathers to thank for it.
Good trading, AEIOU,
Mark
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October 1st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
it sucked
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