Moral insights from the hundred-dollar man
who has seen his picture on the United States’ hundred-dollar bill knows how Benjamin Franklin looked in his time. Franklin ( Jan. 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790), principal author of the famous Declaration of American Independence in 1776, was a newspaperman, inventor of lightning rod, book author, United States ambassador France and delegate to the Constitutional Convention. After r e a di ng t he book notion that he was “aristocratic.”
Franklin, And so he vowed to train himself I noticed a quotation attributed to on how to win friends and influence Autobiography of Benjamin him but which I had not read before: people and eventually wrote about “Remember not only to say the how he did it. I can only guess that right thing in the right place, but far Dale Carnegie (1888-1956), author more difficult still, to leave unsaid of the best-seller the wrong thing at the tempting People, imbibed and
How to Win Friends moment.” paraphrased some of his ideas.
and Influence As one of the wealthiest Americans Franklin taught that while talent in his time, he might not have done and competence at what he did what he preached. But Ben Franklin was of paramount importance, it had such a special ability to deal was often not the difference maker with people that we Filipinos of this in terms of success. There were generation could learn from him. people in his time who, whether That is why I am devoting today’s wittingly or unwittingly, failed to column to this familiar hundred- exploit their talents to the hilt. dollar face. He wrote of talented artists and
While still a boy, so his story authors who had been surpassed went, Ben Franklin – while filled by inferior competitors in terms of with potential – realized that many public acceptance; they didn’t seem of his traits and characteristics were to have a with potential patrons. harmful to his ambition. Some boys, Those frustrated talents, Franklin
way awed by his family’s good fortune, observed, often grumbled about were uncomfortable because of their receiving before giving. It should
the other way around in the beginning, he corrected, in order to gain the attention of a prospect. Happy patrons would not hesitate to run after their favorite service providers or merchants. In the book
Autobiography Writings, the statesman and diplomat of Benjamin Franklin and Other tells of an incident with “a gentleman of fortune and education” who opposed his appointment as clerk of the General Assembly of the Pennsylvania House. knew that this person could give him trouble later on. And so he aimed to convert an enemy into a friend. He wrote in his time’s British English:
“Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him expressing my desire of perusing that book and requesting he would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few days.
“He sent it immediately – and I returned it in about a week with another note expressing strongly my sense of the favor. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility. And he ever afterward
a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.
”This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, ‘He that has once done you kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.’ And it shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent, return, and
In other words we’re better off continue inimical proceedings.” making a friend than keeping an enemy.
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