Ben Franklin’s Virtues – Moving Forward

My eighth and ninth grade English teachers passed out several college-prep reading lists, and I spent my high school years on a mission to read many of the books on them.

I made quite a bit of progress. One of the most memorable of these books (even after 40+ years) was The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Ben was into self-improvement in a big way. He believed that, with hard work, anyone could overcome any obstacle to success. And he was smart about making money at it, too.

His education was mainly from reading. In his adult years, he started a library company in Philadelphia, so that he and his friends could pool resources to buy books, to make them available for all the members to read.

He was a lifelong learner.

Because he was so widely read, I have to think he was aware of the 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Contrary Virtues, as taught in religion.

Whether that was his basis or not, he developed his own list of 13 Virtues, and he put them on a weekly rotation to focus on, each in turn.

In the end, he said that it was worth the effort, though he never achieved perfection. As I recall, humility was the one he struggled with the most.

I like to think he knew about flipping the coins over, because he focused on virtues (something to reach for) rather than mistakes (something to avoid).

We are better creators than avoiders.