YouSaid · the spoken record

Benjamin Franklin

lines on the record: 64
first: 2019-03-04
most recent: 2019-03-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“And that cheerfulness and conversation which makes his company still sought for and agreeable even to his younger acquaintances. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit, and again that's closing out on exactly what we're trying to do here is, hey, I want to learn the ideas you had to have a good life. And like that last sentence says, if we're able to, that some of my descendants may follow the example and then reap the benefit of his experience. So if you want to get the full story, I'd recommend anybody reading this. I just think 112 pages of straight from the mind of Ben Franklin is actually probably a smart thing to read. I know the language sounds a little funny to us now, but it's really like it takes a little longer to read, certainly, but you can put together quite easily what he means. So if you want to do that and support the...”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Circumstances and acquisition of his fortune. With all that knowledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen and attain for him some degree of reputation among the learned, so going after knowledge, being an interesting person to talk to, that opened up so many different opportunities for him. And he's literally talking to his descendants right now.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be 79 years old. And he says, it may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, their ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life down to its seventy-ninth year in which it was written. So saying, I'm telling you the ideas that left me to have a very, very happy and blessed life all the way up until my 79th year, which is how old I am when I'm writing this. What reverses may attend the remainder is in the hand of the providence, meaning what happens in the rest of my life, I don't know, but it's up to God. But if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. And so now he's going to list the stuff that, like, what his ingredients for a happy life are. To temperance, he ascribes his long continued health. To industry and frugality, the early easiness of his”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so he's reflecting now here on, you know, he did this for a long time. He talks about as he got older, sometimes he would track it every day. Sometimes he would... He would go from every day to every week to every month. But he says eventually you just stop doing it. He says, I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it. Yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it. So when I read that, he's saying, okay, you know, I wanted perfection and realized I couldn't achieve it, but even though I didn't hit my goal, I still felt better and happier than I did it. One of my favorite words of all time is this word called autotelek. And autotelek is just something that has an end or purpose in and of itself. He was doing this activity for the sake of doing it. Even if you say you have another goal, like you just enjoyed it so much that you just do it because you want to do it. So I just love that. So now he's just going to close out a little bit reflecting on what it's like.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About social media and the modern distraction we all carry around with us. Seven, sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly. And if you speak, speak accordingly. Number eight, justice. Wrong none by doing injuries are omitting the benefits of your duty. Number nine, moderation. Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Number 10, cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in the body, clothes, or habitation. Tranquility Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable twelve chastity rarely use venery before health or offspring, neither to dullness, weakness, or for the injury of your Own or another piece of reputation. And number 13, humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the names of these virtues with their precepts were, and so you just lists them and he describes them. Number one, temperance, eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation. Two, silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. three. Order Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time. Number four, resolution Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. So I guess do what you say you're going to do. Number five, frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself. Waste nothing. Number six, industry. Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions. I wonder what you would think.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so it jumps around a little bit. And I think the last time it's actually unfinished because the last sentence is even finished and he dies like a year or two after that. So he never actually completed it. But the reason I bring that up is because after he's already successful in business and he's kind of venturing out to different things, he has this idea that he wants to be, he's composing a list of virtues. So I just want to go through this list real quick. So he says it was about this time that I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. So he winds up not, obviously, you know, you can't achieve perfection, but he's very satisfied. Well, I'm jumping ahead. Let me just read you the list of 13 virtues that he tracked. He actually had like a would be like a rudimentary spreadsheet that he wrote out and he would write what days he adhered to these virtues and what days he didn't.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I realized what he's talking about there. Why is Ben Franklin's life getting easier the every day that he's able to be responsible with his resources, which to me is really just a definition for Galile, right? Just being responsible. Why is it easier in life as opposed to being harder? And it's because just like he's avoiding, I'm going to use John Bogle's quote here to illustrate this. This is what frugality avoids. Keep your expenses low for the tyranny of compounding costs can devastate the miracle of compounding returns. Ben Franklin is keeping his compounding cost low so he can enjoy the upside of compounding returns. And so a little while longer, this biography was written over, I think like a decade and a half. I don't have the actual years in front of me, but he wrote it, he sat down to write it four different”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits of frugality continuing. So when I read that part about, hey, like I just devoted myself to business because I enjoyed it and then I spent my other time reading. First of all, that sounds like a good idea, right? Especially if you enjoy it, because then it's actually going to be fun, what some people might feel is laborious is fun for you. But this whole thing is like, you know, I did this for a long time, but my circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits of frugality continuing. This reminds me of a few weeks ago, we talked about John Bogle, founder of Van”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“From study became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observed by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in the other countries. I thought that was one surprising and two really, really cool. And so it says this library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I would allow myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolics of any kind. In my industry and my business continued as indefatigable as it was necessary.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So few readers at the time in Philadelphia and the majority of us so poor that it was not able without great industry to get to find more than 50 persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for the purpose forty shillings each and then ten shillings each year. So 40 shillings to get started, 10 shillings each year, and we can all have access to this information. But we always talk about all big things start small. In this example of that, on this little fun, we began. The books were imported, the library was opened one day in the week for lending to the subscribers. And then they had promissory notes to pay double the value if the book wasn't returned. The institution soon manifested its utility was imitated by other towns and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations, reading became fashionable, and our people having no public amusements to divert their attention.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fascinating, like you can go online and see the list of questions. So before they would talk, they would like have questions that would basically be meant to spur in the discussion. So he says, let's bring all of our books in this year into one room where we have these conferences. So not only can we consult them in conferences, but they could become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he'd wish to read at home. So finding the advantage of this little collection, I propose to render the benefit from books more common, meaning making more accessible to everybody. If this is benefiting us, why won't like there's no way there's only 12 people that would be benefiting from this? By commencing a public subscription library.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He organizes it even though he's like the youngest one. He's like the leader of it and starts off with like a dozen people and then grows to a lot more than that to like different clubs all over the country. But basically they just meet they all read books. They all have different ideas. They're all trying to continue to learn. And so they meet and then they discuss like the business of the day. So not only are they giving them tips to how they're running their businesses because they're all merchants, but like they talk about philosophy and science and literature and all this other different, these different things. It's also a great product name. I kind of wish I called Founder's Notes Junto. If I had known this before, but so anyways, he already has this going and he's like, I propose to them, meaning the people in Junto, that we should all bring our books to one room where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, meaning these conversations.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good bookseller shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. Those who loved reading were obliged to send for their books from England. I proposed that we should all bring us first of all, let me back up because he has this thing, and I love this idea. And it's called the junto. And it starts off as a small club. Of different tradesmen from all different backgrounds, you know, blacksmiths, printers, writers, all kinds of people.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Predicted that, hey, this guy, he's so bad at running business, it's a matter of time till he fails, so it's going to open opportunities for us. They wind up being correct on that. Oh, and this was actually really fascinating. So he's got a ton of achievements, right? More than we could even list here. But one of the things that he did, which I didn't know, is he created the countries, America's first subscription library. So he says, I used to establish the Philadelphia Public Library, which from a small beginning has now grown to become considerable.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he's buying them at the store, but then he's pushing them through the street on a wheelbarrow to make it look like he's out delivering papers. Thus being esteemed as industrious, as an industrious thriving young man and paying duly for what I bought, the merchants who imported stationary solicited my custom, meaning they saw him doing this and this branding gave him more business. So they solicited my custom and they proposed supplying me with books and I went on swimmingly. In the meantime Kimers credit and business declining daily. He was at last forced to sell his printing house to satisfy his creditors. He went to Barbados and there lived some years in very poor circumstances. So now there was three, now there's two. The person that was Ben used to work for and they had correctly”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then a story on the pages a few pages later, she kind of tells me that Ben understood branding, what we would call branding today. And so he says, in order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be really industrious and frugal, those are the words again, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary, I dress plainly. I was seen at no places of idle diversion. To show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores through the streets on a wheelbarrow.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We gave bail but saw that if the money could not be raised at the time, the suit must come soon to a judgment and execution and the execution of that judgment means that it would have ruined us as the press and letters would have been sold for payment, perhaps at half the price. So he has two kind friends who agree to lend him the money to get him out from this happening. And then Meredith realizes, hey, I'm kind of like useless. I'm not good at this skill. I want to go back into the country and become a farmer. So Ben reincorporates and he's now the sole proprietor of his business and therefore in control.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But so he's doing well. His printing company is doing well, his newspaper is doing well, but he's almost ruined by debt. And debt is something he talks about at length. I think he mentions it like 10 to 15 times in this book. And this book is rather short. It's 110 pages, the paperback version. So he's mentioning it every 10 or 11 pages. So he says, but now another difficulty came upon me, which I had never the least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith's father, which is his business partner, dad who put up the money, who was to have paid for our printing house according to the expectations given me, according to what I thought, was able to advance only £100 currency.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Subscribers. So, the way he is with his skill, with a pen is bringing him more subscribers. But basically he's telling us that he would have been great on Twitter. And it says, seeing now, and you're talking about the subscribers, seeing now, seeing a newspaper now in the hands of one who could also handle a pen, which is very different from Bradford. So get another example, what Bradford's messing up on. Bradford was printing out this public information for the address and the contact information for the politicians. But he messed it up. He said he had printed an address of the house to the governor in a coarse blundering manner. We reprinted it elegantly and correctly and then sent it to every member, meaning every member of the government. They were sensible of the difference. And then that actually led them to changing when they needed something printed professionally. They took the business from Bradford and gave it to Ben.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then so he says one of our, so he starts in the newspaper and he goes out and he's trying to get subscribers, people to pay for the information that he's printing for them. So it says our first papers make quite a difference appearance from any before in the province. It had a better type. It was better printed and some spirited remarks and it had spirited remarks of my writing. So he's writing on the dispute that's taking place between some people in the local government, a governor and an assemblyman. So while this dispute's going on, Ben is writing in his own newspaper and he's giving pithy opinions. He calls him spirited remarks. But what happened was people were like, it wasn't bland, so people were drawn to it. So he said, occasion the paper and the manager of it to be much talked of, meaning himself. And in a few weeks brought them all to be.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Aggrandizing, but because those are my posteriority, meaning my descendants who shall read it may know the use of that virtue, meaning industry is virtuous. When they see its effects in my favor throughout this relation, when they see that what industry brought to my life, I soon intended to begin a newspaper. My hopes of success were founded on this, that the only newspaper printed by Bradford at the time was a paltry thing, wretchedly managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profitable to him. I therefore thought a good paper would scarcely fail, so he sees this guy doesn't even know what he's doing, he's making a profit. Like, why would we assume that if I make a better product, I can also make a profit?”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now he's going to talk about how he believes that industry is virtuous. And then we're going to get into knowing the right way to do something by seeing it done the wrong way. So there's people in town that are of the general opinion. It says general opinion was that it must fail, meaning his business. Because there's already two printers in the place, but there's this guy, Dr. Baird, who knew Ben, and he gives a contrary opinion. And this is Dr. Baird's words. He says them a contrary opinion. For the industry of that Franklin, says he, is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind. I see him still at work when I go home from the club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed. I mention this industry the more particularly and the more freely, though this has been talking again, though it seems to be talking in my own praise. So he's saying, listen, I'm telling you about my industry, not just because I'm like self-”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and to declaim in the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a house there because all was going to destruction. So he doesn't want to buy anything because why would I buy into a place that's going bankrupt? And at last, I had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as much for one house as he might have bought it for when he first began his croaking.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Being answered in the affirmative, he said he was sorry for me because it was an expensive undertaking and the expense would be lost, for Philadelphia was a sinking place. The people already half bankrupt are near being so, even though all appearances to the country. And this is what Ben makes the point. He's like, that's weird. Like, what's up with all these new buildings and the rising of rents then? So being to his certain knowledge false, for they were, in fact, among the things that would soon ruin us. So when Ben brings us up, he's like, no, that's fake, right? So he says, and he gave me such a detail of misfortunes now existing or that were soon to exist that he left me half melancholy. So this is another example of why you should avoid pessimistic people. They're just not fun to talk to. Had I known him before, I engaged in this business, probably I never should have done it. This man continued to live in this decaying place.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Does not give me this much pleasure as the first bit of money I made when I first started my company. Bless him. I have since earned any crown that I've seen. Has made me often more ready than perhaps I should otherwise have been to assist young beginners. So that's Ben Franklin saying something we talk about a lot, that if you want to vote with your dollars and you have the opportunity to spend with a company that's run by a person, the founder, as opposed to this giant faceless conglomerate, like try to spend money with the individuals because those are the people that need your help, not these giant companies that are usually far away from their actual customers' well-beings. And he's saying that, you know, I've otherwise been able to assist young beginners. We need more small businesses. We need more entrepreneurship, not less. The wages, speaking for my own country, the wages in this country for the middle class have been stagnant for 40 years. Nobody is coming to save you. Politicians don't care about you. There's nothing they can do. The only thing, like, you can only save yourself.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Philadelphia. So Kymer was not very respected. I have a note. Sometimes I leave notes for myself. I don't know what I'm talking about. So I left the note, Croaker's Everywhere, and now I have to read over all my highlights because I have no idea what I'm talking about. So let me jump into this. Okay, so he's already opened for business at this time. So he says we had scarce opened our letters and put our press in order before an acquaintance of mine brought a countryman to us, whom he had met in the street inquiring for a printer. So this random guy was walking around, said I need a printer. Ben's friends like, hey, I'll walk you over there. This country, and this is a really interesting point, or I guess feeling, I would say. This countryman's five shillings being our first fruits, meaning the first revenue into the company, and coming so seasonably, meaning when they needed it, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have since earned. So Ben is a very, very, very wealthy person at the time he's writing this, and he's saying that all the money of...”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so during this time, there's a bunch of people. Chimer's also a little jealous of Ben because a lot of people come to the printing house and call on Ben. And Ben has this idea. He's like, well, my mind, and I love the way he puts this when my daughter sees me reading, I'm going to start saying this. My mind having been much more improved by reading than Kymer's, I suppose it was for that reason my conversations seemed to be more valued. In the context that he's getting invited to these dinners or these taverns where people want to talk to him. So next time somebody sees you reading, say, what are you doing? Like I'm improving my mind. And so one of these guys, you know, he's basically Ben's becoming acquainted with all like the older more successful people in Philadelphia. And one of them tells him that he doesn't know that he's going to set up his own printing company. So it's kind of like prophetic, but he says, I foresee that you will soon work this man out of business and make a fortune in it.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it says, hey, this is the, like you know these facts to be true. Chimer doesn't know what he's doing. My father would finance, give us like the seed capital we need to start a printing company. And if we become partners, so Ben and Meredith become partners. He says the proposal was agreeable. And I consented. His father was in town and approved of it. He saw that I had great influence with his son. So he wanted his son to be around Ben because Ben avoided vices and his son was a drunk, another drunk. So he says I gave an inventory to the father who carried it to a merchant and the things were sent for. The secret was to be kept until they arrived. So they keep working at Kymer's, but they're not going to tell them they're going to compete with them until they actually have the equipment.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Go back to Boston. So before he thinks about going back to Boston, he goes back to work for one of the printers Kimer. They get an argument, so Ben leaves, but then they wind up reconciling. But in between this, there's a guy named Meredith that's working with them. And Meredith is actually helpful of getting Ben to Stanford. So he says he dissuaded me from returning to my native country. It's funny that they call it country. He's talking about the city of Boston. Which I began to think of. He reminded me that Kymer was in debt for all he possessed, that his creditors began to be uneasy, and that he kept his shop miserably. He sold often without profit for ready money and often trusted without keeping accounts, that he must therefore fail which would make a vacancy I might profit of, okay?”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he's talking about the guy that he hired. He's like, listen, I didn't make much progress. I worked a lot, only spent money on plays and books, but now I've actually made an acquaintance that's going to be very helpful to me. And it was. They get back to Philadelphia and he says, I respected and loved him. And we might have gone on together very happy. But then this guy gets sick. This happens only like a year after they get back to Philadelphia, a year or two after they get back. And it said, the sickness held on to him for a long time and at length carried him off, meaning killed him. The store was then taken into the care of his executors of his will and my employment under him ended. So now he's got to figure out what is going on. What am I going to do? Now I'm back in Philadelphia and he's like, maybe I should just...”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so now he keeps going around buying all these things with his new boss. And they're about to leave back to America. And Ben is just kind of reflecting on that. He says, thus I spent about 18 months in London. Most part of the time I worked hard in my new business and spent belittle upon myself except in seeing plays and in books. But I had picked up some very ingenious acquaintance whose conversation was of great advantage to me and I had read considerably.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Copy his letters and attend the store. I now took leave of printing, and this is interesting how the future is never predictable because listen to what Ben says here. As I thought forever, so he thought it was done with the world of printing forever. Keep in mind, obviously that's not true. That's how he makes his fortune. And was daily employed in my new business going about among the tradesmen to purchase various articles.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All right, so now he has a new job. He gets recruited by this merchant. This guy was from England, went to Pennsylvania. He was basically broke when he arrived in Pennsylvania. He starts what today would be like a retail business. He buys things other people made, marks it up a little bit, and then sells it to the end customer, right? And he leaves England in kind of disgrace, not paying his debts. He makes all his money in Philadelphia. He's coming back to England. This is where Ben meets him. And he's coming back to pay all of his debts with interest. But he's only stopping there to grab some more stuff from England and go back to Philadelphia to his business. So he decides, hey, like, why don't you come work with me? Like, get out of this printing business, and I'll teach you how to be a merchant or what we would call today, you know, an entrepreneur. And so Ben comments on this. He says he now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia and should carry over a great quantity of goods in order to open a store there. He proposed to take me over as his clerk to keep his books, in which he would instruct me.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what do you think the result of that was? He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor. An expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I thought it was a detestable custom, but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. So he's telling Ben, the reason he's doing this. So he says, this is the way Ben's mind works, though, which I find so interesting. I endeavor to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made, meaning he's breaking it down to its material constituents, right? That there was more flour and a penny worth of bread and therefore if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Guzzlers of beer. They said they drank strong beer. So it says, My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. So let me read this quote before I get into the rest of the story so you keep this in mind. Because he has this great idea that we're not, he picked up 300 years ago, however long it's been, that we're not really rational creatures. We're rationalizing creatures. So he says, so convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature. Since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. So you're just really justifying your behavior. You're going to see that here with this, you know, drunk guy. So he says...”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the moral of the story is to lower your cost, the more freedom you have. So it says, and then this is how he stumbled. The good thing, though, is he's not able to save much money during this time. He is gaining experience, but he's gaining a lot of knowledge because there's a library next door or a bookseller next door rather that becomes his own personal library. So he said, I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. And he said, I might take, read, and return any of his books. This I esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could. So the reason I keep putting these quotes out is because we have a lot easier today. Like we carry around the sum of human knowledge in our pockets. But Ben talked about one advantage that he had over just regular persons was his desire to constantly improve and to learn about not only to develop more skills for himself, but to learn about the natural world.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now Ben's worried. He's like, what should I do? And so his friend says, his advice is, he advised me to endeavor getting some employment in the way of my business, meaning the printing business, among the printers here. You will improve yourself. And when you return to America, you will set up to greater advantage So he does exactly that. He gets a relatively low paying job, so he finds work, and he finds shelter. And the problem was, though, that he basically he's used to being frugal and squirreling away and saving money. But the cost of living in London at the time is so expensive and his wages are not keeping up with it. And he says our expenses, he has a friend with him. Because of our expenses, he was actually lending money to another friend. I was constantly kept unable to pay my passage.”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so this is what I was mentioning earlier where he finds now he lands in England and he finds out the governor's unreliable. So he realizes, hey, there's no letters here. I don't know how I'm going to buy these things. I don't have any money. So he says I began to doubt his sincerity. I found my friend Denham and opened up the whole affair to him. He led me into Keith's character. That's the governor's name. Told me there was not the least probability that he had written any letters for me, that no one who knew him had the smallest dependence on him. And he laughed at the notion of the governor giving me a letter of credit, having he said no credit to give.”
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“And then there's this great quote on the very next page, and it says there was great difference in persons and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it. So the context of this discussion is that this governor wants to set him up in business, even though Ben Young, his father hears about it and doesn't want Ben to do it because he says, hey, Ben's too young to run a business. And the response was, well, yeah, but there's a great difference in the quality of people. And it doesn't always get better with age.”
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“So they wind up getting into a bit of an argument. They were drunk one day. Ben wasn't drunk, but Collins was drunk. And they were with a group of other people on rowing a boat across the water. And for some reason, Collins decided that, hey, I don't have to row. You guys have to take care of me. And so this huge argument, because it's, you know, just more crappy, selfish behavior. And Collins decides to take off with the West Indies. And before he leaves, he tells Ben, he left me then, promising to remit me the first money he should receive in order to discharge his debt. I never heard from him again. So again, kind of getting a crash course in human nature here.”
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“He continued lodging and boarding at the same house with me and at my expense. So his friend is not only drunk, but he has no money, can't get a job because he continues to give in to his vices and is borrowing money liberally from Benjamin. And he says, promising repayment as soon as he should be in the business.”
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“Okay, so he runs into his childhood friend Collins. And when they were growing up, they were two of the most studious young people in the little town they lived in. And they read a bunch of books. They would engage in intellectual debate or just, you know, kind of talking over whatever ideas and sharing ideas. But now he pops up later on in life and it says, but during my absence, his name is Collins. He had acquired a habit of sodding with brandy and I found by his own account and from what I heard from others that he had been He had gambled too and lost his money. Collins wished to be employed and some counting house, but whether they discovered his dramming by his breath, meaning the fact that he was drunk because it was on his breath, or by his behavior, he met with no success.”
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“And if you are not on your guard, I'm translating from this old English like the trying to translate in real time for you. But if you're not on your guard, they will draw you into some danger. They are strangers to you. And I advise you in a friendly concern for your welfare to have no acquaintance with them. And so this grandmother wind up being correct. They were trying to set him up to rob him. They did the same thing for the captain of the ship. And then once they got to England, they were actually caught basically seducing men and stealing their possessions, is what they were doing. Okay, so skipping ahead a little bit. This is where he learns the dangers of vice. And he's just got And then he's just got a great quote.”
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“And this happens on the boat to England, and he befriends this elderly woman, a grandmother, just being nice to her. And you remember, he's very young, 17, 18 years old at the time, doesn't know much of the world, is now traveling abroad. And there's two young women on the boat that are paying him attention. And he's like, oh, this is great. This is fantastic. But the grandmother pulls him aside. It's like, listen, I need to school you on what's going on here, guy. He says when she saw a daily growing familiarity between me and the two young women, which they appeared to encourage, she took me aside and said, Young man, I am concerned for thee, as thou hast no friend with thee, and seems not to know much of the world, are of the snares used as exposed to. Depend on it. Those are very bad women. I can see it in their actions.”
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“Okay, so now he goes to work for Kimer. And he's being industrious, he's being frugal, and he's still dedicated to continuous learning. And so people hear about this young guy who's reading all the time. And so he actually meets the governor of the province. And he comes and calls on Ben. He wants to know who this new young man is. He says, he said, I appeared a young man of promising parts and therefore should be encouraged. The printers of Philadelphia were wretched ones, and if I would set up there, he made no doubt that I should succeed. So he puts his little kernel of an idea into Ben's mind, and he also gives him a promise. He proposed my setting up of my business laid before me the probabilities of success, saying, hey, the printers here kind of suck. You could do better. And not only can you do better, but I will help set you up. So now this guy winds up being...”
2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, let me tell you so there's two printers in Philadelphia, and he goes to see both of them. The first one that he was told to go is this guy named Bradford. So he says, these two printers I found poorly qualified for their business. Bradford had not been bred to it and was very illiterate. And Kymer, though something of a scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of press work. So this part's important because he's really identifying what he feels he winds up going into business and competing directly with both these guys. And he's kind of telling you his competitive analysis of why eventually he's going to compete with them and why he thinks he's going to win, which he does. So he talks about this is something that's mentioned in the book, multiple, multiple times mentioned in many, many of the books that we've covered so far. And so during this time, he said he was gaining money by my industry, meaning hard work and frugality.”
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“Made there. I was dirty from my journey. My pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with travelling, rowing, and want of rest. I was very hungry, and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper. So he's just walking the streets trying to get to figure out what's going on in this town. And he says, I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door of Mr. Reed and then a little twist of fate here. I passed by the door of Mr. Reed. My future wife's father, when she, his future wife, standing at the door, saw me and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward and ridiculous appearance. So he actually meets the governor of the new area he's in.”
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“But having a trade and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered my services to the printer in the place. So he meets the printer. Printer's like, listen, I can't, I don't have any business for you, but I know of somebody in Philadelphia and he says he could give me no employment having little to do. But he says, my son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, the person working for him died. And if you go over there, I believe he may employ you. So Ben just does just that. He's like, all right, well, I'm not going to stay in New York if there's no work for me. And this is his humble arrival in Philadelphia as he remembers it. He says, my first, and this is really interesting because, you know, he's definitely accused of having some vanity of his own. But I would argue that it's probably deserved. So he says, my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since.”
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