The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

There’s a lot to be learned from Benjamin Franklin. It’s nice to learn it from the man himself. Not a thorough autobiography by any means. It stops abruptly, long before the American Revolution. Franklin would often engage in public projects for the benefit of his city (Philadelphia). When gathering support and funding for these projects, he learned to minimize his involvement by feigning to represent a group who asked for his help rather than “owning” the project. Nevertheless, he was always the one who seemed to initiate or expedite civic projects. One way he was able to accomplish this was by focusing himself on his 13 “virtues”, which he ingrained as habit by way of his 13 week journal. The book ends with a story about “paying too much for the whistle”, an error he committed and learned from early in life. (View on Amazon)