Western Culture
DISCOVERS
THE SAME
PRINCIPLES
& SUCCESS
FORMULA
“The best way to predict the future is to create it” -- Peter Drucker
Benjamin Franklin
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Cicero for Rome and Franklin for America
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Author (Poor Richard’s Almanac), Printer,
Postman, Statesman, Diplomat, Inventor
(bifocals, stove, heating, armonica, lightning
rod), Soldier, Philosopher, Scientist
Co-founded 1st American hospital, 1st
subscription library, started police force, fire
company and street lighting in Philadelphia
The only individual to sign all 4 founding
documents of the United States (Declaration of
Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S.
Constitution, Bill of Rights) and shaped the
Albany Plan of Union, Treaty with France, ...
“The most accomplished American of his time”
“Of all those men who made independence
possible, none mattered more than Franklin and
only Washington mattered as much”
One of the most popular men of his time … and
yet people DISLIKED him in his youth
Benjamin Franklin’s Plan for Moral Perfection
“It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous Project of
arriving at moral Perfection. I wis’d to live without committing any Fault
at any time; I would conquer all that either Natural Inclination, Custom or
Company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was
right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and
avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a Task of more
Difficulty than I had imagined. While my Attention was taken up in
guarding against one Fault, I was often surprised by another; Habit took
the Advantage of Inattention. Inclination was sometimes too strong for
Reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative Conviction that it
was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent
our Slipping; and that the contrary Habits must be broken, and good ones
acquired and established, before we can have any Dependence on a steady,
uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the
following Method.”
1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling
conversation.
3. Order - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its
time.
4. Resolution - Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you
resolve.
5. Frugality - Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself, i.e. waste nothing.
6. Industry - Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all
unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity - Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak,
speak accordingly.
8. Justice - Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation - Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they
deserve.
10. Cleanliness - Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. Tranquility - Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity - Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dulness,
weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation
13. Humility - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
FOCUS (do once a week on a 3x5 index card):
My intention being to acquire the Habitude of all these Virtues, I
judged it would be well not to distract my Attention by attempting the
whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I
should be master of that, then to Proceed to another, and so on, till I
should have gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous
Acquisition of some might facilitate the Acquisition of certain others,
I arrang’d them with that view.
RECORD, MONITOR, MEASURE:
I made a little Book, in which I allotted a page for each of the Virtues.
I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for
each day of the Week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I
crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning
of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line,
and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every
Fault I found upon Examination to have been committed respecting
that Virtue upon the day.
Franklin’s Autobiography and The Art
of Virtue ...
DAILY METHOD (CONSISTENCY, DISCIPLINE):
I determined to give a week’s strict Attention to each of the Virtues
successively. Thus in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the
least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their
ordinary chance, only marking every evening the Faults of the day. Thus,
if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T (for Temperance),
cleared of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much Strengthened,
and its opposite Weakened, that I might venture extending my attention to
include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots.
Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in
Thirteen weeks and Four Courses in a year. And like him who, having a
garden to weed, does not attempt to Eradicate all the bad herbs at once,
which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the
beds at a time, and, having accomplish’d the first, proceeds to a second, so
I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of Seeing on my pages
the Progress I made in Virtue, by Clearing successively my lines of their
spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing
a Clean Book, after a Thirteen week’s daily Examination.
The Advantages
of this Program
• First, Ben Franklin had the satisfaction of seeing his errors
gradually diminish due to this technique.
• Second, he was a better and happier man than he otherwise
would have been had he not attempted the task.
• [Buddha once said that without meditation accomplishment,
belief in karma and acting upon that belief was still the “best
bet”since it would help you produce the best current life with
certainty, and the best future life if it indeed existed.”]
• When he reached the age of seventy-eight, Franklin said that
the process had made him a better and happier man, and
concluded his autobiography by writing, “I hope, therefore,
that some of my descendents may follow the example and
Franklin’s Epitaph
“The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its
contents torn and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here food
for worms, But the work shall not be lost, for it will as he believed
appear once more in a new and more elegant edition revised and
corrected by the author.” -- Age 22
“When I see nothing annihilated (in the works of God) and not a
drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the annihilation of souls, or
believe that He will suffer the daily waste of millions of minds
ready made that now exist, and put Himself to the continual trouble
of making new ones. Thus, finding myself to exist in the world, I
believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist; and, with all
the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new
edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be
corrected."
Aristotle’s Viewpoint
Many problems that seem intractable to modern psychology
can be addressed by principles articulated clearly by
Aristotle.
He pointed out that virtue, which he defined as the control of
the appetites by the reason, is a kind of habit.
Learning what is good for you, and then developing good
habits to practice it -- much as athletes practice for their sport
-- and ultimately learning to like what is good for you, is the
key to success and happiness.
Frank Bettger - How I Raised Myself
from Failure to Success in Selling
“I followed his plan exactly as Benjamin Franklin told me how he used it. I
just took it and applied it to selling. Of Franklin’s 13 subjects, I chose 6 and
then substituted 7 others which I thought would be more helpful to me in
my business, subjects in which I was especially weak. Here is my list and
the order in which I used them:”
1. Enthusiasm.
2. Order: self-organization.
3. Think in terms of others’ interests.
4. Questions.
5. Key issue.
6. Silence: listen.
7. Sincerity: Deserve Confidence.
8. Knowledge of My Business.
9. Appreciation and Praise.
10. Smile: Happiness.
11. Remember names and faces.
12. Service and Prospecting.
13. Closing the Sale: Action.
I made up a 3” x 5” card, a “pocket reminder,” for each one of my
subjects, with a brief summary of the principles, … The first week, I carried
the card on Enthusiasm in my pocket. At odd moments during the day, I
read these principles. Just for that one week, I determined to double the
amount of enthusiasm that I had been putting into my selling, and into my
life. The second week, I carried my card on Order: self-organization. And
so on each week.
After I completed the first thirteen weeks, and started all over again
with my first subject—Enthusiasm—I knew I was getting a better hold on
myself. I began to feel an inward power that I had never known before.
Each week, I gained a clearer understanding of my subject. It got down
deeper inside of me. My business became more interesting. It became
exciting!
At the end of one year, I had completed four courses. I found myself
doing things naturally, and unconsciously, that I wouldn’t have attempted a
year before. Although I fell far short of mastering any of these principles, I
found this simple plan a truly magic formula. Without it, I doubt whether I
could have maintained my enthusiasm . . . and I believe if a man can
Frank McKinney
“Rock and Roll” Real Estate Developer
Make it Big! 49 Rules for Building a Life of
Extreme Success
This simple planning process—setting aside one weekend a year to create a
new personal vision statement, and then taking a couple of hours each Saturday to
establish the goals that will help me turn that vision into reality—has been the bedrock
underlying my success for the past 10 years. Once I started doing this, I found a
marked change in my life and in my results. Sure, I was accomplishing more, since I
was taking the time to plan my week. But more than that, I was linking my weekly
goals to the vision of who I wanted to be.
A personal vision and mission statement is the agreement you make with
yourself that this is who you want to be, how you want to act, what you will and won’t
do, and how you want to appear in the world. It’s also a living, breathing document
that will change over the years. I know there are some people who like to create 5and 10-year plans for their lives, but I’m not one of them. Sure, I can have a sense of
who I want to be 10 years from now, but I have found that redoing my vision every
year keeps it fresh. It allows me to take into account the progress I have or haven’t
made and set my direction based on what I see as my next step. After all, I have the
big picture of my highest calling … that pulls me toward my ultimate future much more
strongly than a 5- or 10-year plan. …
Having a mission or vision statement for your business is the first step.
Tying it to your goals is the next. Do your quarterly or yearly goals have
anything to do with your mission? …
The last step is to make sure your daily efforts represent the goals you’ve set
and the vision you’ve created. When your business spends its days pursuing goals
based on your corporate vision, your customers as well as the business community
Setting a vision for your business is one of the most important tools in
your entrepreneural toolbox. A vision is what sets entrepreneurs or
intrapreneurs apart from workers who do their nine-to-five and go
home. A vision makes work not just earning a paycheck but a means of
creating something. Take the time to create a vision for yourself and
your business. You never know what magic you will bring about as a
result. …
Every Saturday afternoon …, I sit down with the previous week’s chart
and a copy of my personal vision statement. I review my vision
statement first, to remember the big picture of what I want my life to be
about this year. Then I look at the previous week’s accomplishments
and what hasn’t gotten done, and I ask, “How was this week? How
did I approach things? What did I do well? What did I do wrong?
Where did I fail, not only professionally but personally? Where
did I not live up to my personal vision statement?” Then I ask the
most important questions: “What can I learn from this? How can I be
a better person next time?” I write the answers to all those questions
on the back of the previous week’s chart. Once I have done my
introspection, then—and only then—am I ready to plan a new week.
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
The president of an important Wall Street bank once described, in a talk before one of my
classes, a highly effective system he used for self-improvement. This man had little formal
schooling; yet he had become one of the most important financiers in America, and he
confessed that he owed most of his success to the constant application of his homemade
system. This is what he does. I’ll put it in his own words as accurately as I can remember.
“For years I have kept an engagement book showing all the appointments I had during the day.
My family never made any plans for me on Saturday night, for the family knew I devoted a
part of each Saturday evening to the illuminating process of self-examination and review
and appraisal. After dinner I went off by myself, opened my engagement book, and thought
over all the interviews, discussions and meetings that had taken place during the week. I
asked myself:
“‘What mistakes did I make that time?’
“‘What did I do that was right-and in what way could I have improved my performance?’
“‘What lessons can I learn from that experience?’
“I often found that this weekly review made me very unhappy. I was frequently astonished at
my own blunders. Of course, as the years passed, these blunders became less frequent.
Sometimes I was inclined to pat myself on the back a little after one of these sessions. This
system of self-analysis, self-education, continued year after year, did more for me than any
other one thing I ever attempted.
It helped me improve my ability to make decisions—and it aided me enormously in all my
contacts with people. I cannot recommend it too highly.”
A RULE FOR LIFE:
If you want to be Successful in what
you do, the Fastest Way is to find
other successful people and Model
them. Find out what they are already
doing and Do Exactly what they do …
You don’t have to suffer the pain of
reinventing the wheel.
If you Want to Change Your Life, use
Ben Franklin’s and Liao Fan’s method !
* Journal * Awareness (Meditation) * Merit practice and virtue * Mantra