The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

In short

Franklin’s notes written down at the exact time of his life. No headings, no timelines, no real structure, just notes. But the man is decent, reasonable and definitely a good one.

Timeline

When you read this book, it’s quite hard to keep up with the timeline - some parts take up only a few months, while some are about few years. The good thing is that it’s easy to see which are the brightest parts of his life (definitely some special moments).

For me the most exciting time of his life was his youth. While his colleagues spent their time drinking beer, Franklin read books, drank water and became a vegetarian. For those times that must have been an unprecedent step and looks like it payed off.

Self growth

Especially important was his approach to self growth.

I loved the part where he (still pretty young) realized that his debate-style approach to always argue with his opponents nor did give much of happiness to any party, nor helped him win his opponent to his beliefs. I should finally take this by heart and not be so easily enraged.

Also great was his approach to acknowledge his flaws and work on them. Hard. It takes a lot of courage to understand your weeknesses and not run away from them, but do the opposite and keep track of them and their changing over time.

Social life

He also was a bussinessman. A lot of his writings consists of deals with all kinds of bussinessman - trustable, reliable and the opposite. But he made his name by being generous and proposing ideas for common good, not his own. People trusted him because he kept his own bussiness away from social work. Franklin started the first public library, voluntary fire fighting system, helped build hospitals and pave roads.

And that’s how he became a well respected politician. And later on even a army leader for a moment. The last part of his life (all about politics and th army time) was pretty hard to understand and relate to. Maybe I just should be older to get it.

Benjamin Franklin did his life well. He built up his bussiness, then spent his time doing good for society and because of that naturally became a politician and army leader. This more or less sounds like somebody’s plan. Like Kalvis’ plan. I hope he’ll manage to make it happen just as good as Franklin did!