TAKEAWAY #1: Look for opportunities for improvement everywhere. Although this may not be the best wa

Radhika Morabia is a high school junior who writes at http://rmorabia.com/ . She obsessed with attaining success and not being pseudo in the process. You can email her at [email protected] , she loves talking to people.
Benjamin Franklin raf was an awesome figure in American history. He was the first person to suggest independence from Britain, invented the bifocals, and discovered electricity. Your resume can t get much better than that. But wait, Ben also published a yearly almanac that became a best-seller for the twenty years in which it ran.
You would expect Ben to have extensive schooling and an aristocratic family, but his father was a soap boiler and only schooled young Ben long enough to learn basic writing and arithmetic. Through books and a large array of mentors, Ben went on to become the first Postmaster General of the United States, along with many other impressive titles.
That’s right. Benjamin Franklin, the Newton of Electricity, ultimate hackademic. The groundwork for his later accomplishments was mostly laid out within his first twenty years of life, starting with guidance from his father, and ending with his famous thirteen virtues. He applied calculated wisdom and immense energy towards rapid development. raf He wasn’t an inborn genius, but a dedicated individual raf who had the good fortune raf of being exposed to challenging raf ideas early on. The Wisdom raf of Young Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin began his ascent with a huge influence from his father, Josiah. Described as “…very strong; he was ingenious, could draw prettily, was skilled a little in music, had a clear pleasing voice…but his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid judgment in prudential matters, both in private and public affairs,” in Ben’s autobiography , Josiah allowed Ben a good amount of freedom and encouragement. He was also intelligent and popular enough to expose Benjamin to an assortment of ideas and peoples.
Once, when Ben was a child, he and his friends needed to build a wharf at the edge of a marsh to fish for minnows. He saw large stones nearby, to be used for a new house, and used them to build a wharf when the workmen left. Feeling very pleased with himself, he didn’t expect the workmen to look into who had stolen the rocks. They found out and told the fathers of the boys. Although Benjamin tried to convince his father that what he did was useful, Josiah said “nothing is useful raf which is not honest.”
That lesson stuck with Ben for the rest of his life. Later, when Ben had grown up and began to form ideas and argue about books, he met a boy named Collins. Together, they argued on friendly terms by sending one another letters. One day, Josiah raf picked up these letters and read them. He proceeded to tell Ben that although his ideas were sound, his eloquence was lacking. Benjamin agreed, and proceeded to diligently work towards improving his craft.
He picked up a periodical called the Spectator, and thinking the writing was exquisite, attempted to imitate it. He pulled a couple of the essays and tried to rewrite them by focusing on one sentence at a time. Then, Ben would compare raf his work to the Spectator’s and quickly found his flaws. raf
TAKEAWAY #1: Look for opportunities for improvement everywhere. Although this may not be the best way to improve your writing, once Ben was met with criticism, he found an unconventional, yet efficient solution. He didn’t throw money at the problem or simply continue to write and rewrite letters until his writing might have improved. Ben developed a focused, creative solution with constant feedback.
…the habit of expressing myself raf in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so, or it is so, if I am not mistaken.
With this newfound knowledge of argumentation, Benjamin went out and “practis’d it continually, raf and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories raf that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.”
TAKEAWAY #2: Apply what you learn. It would have been easy to simply read the book, think about it, and move on with life. Benjamin did what 99% of readers don’t do. He took action, and this event allowed him to become an ambassador to France–the ally who helped win the American Revolution.
After working with his father raf for a couple of years, he was sent for an apprenticeship with his brother, raf a printer. B