The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Puntos clave

• Aprende lo que sea imitando a los mejores, reescribiendo y comparando
• Anota tus virtudes en una tabla sencilla y trabaja una cada vez
• Tu reputación se forja con lo que la gente te ve hacer a diario
• Usa palabras sencillas y dejarán de resistirse a tus ideas
• Comparte el mérito y sacarás adelante muchos más proyectos

Dentro de este bit

1. Una vida hecha a pulso, contada sin rodeos

   A teenage runaway walks into Philadelphia with a few coins, buys three bread rolls and wanders the streets eating one with the others under his arms. The girl watching him laugh will later become his wife.

2. Aprende por imitación

   Franklin left school at 10 and learned to write by copying the best. He took essays from an English magazine he admired, made short notes on each, put them away for days, then tried to rebuild the essays from the notes in his own words.

3. Trece virtudes en un cuaderno

   Franklin wanted to be morally perfect and, being practical, he built a system. He listed 13 virtues, among them temperance, silence, order, frugality, industry, sincerity and humility, and gave each a short rule.

4. Trabajo, ahorro y reputación

   Franklin built his printing business on two virtues and one insight. The virtues were industry and frugality: work long hours, avoid debt, spend little.

5. Convenza con calma, construya en equipo

   Young Franklin loved to win arguments and noticed it made him enemies. So he changed his speech, dropping words like certainly and undoubtedly, and saying instead that he imagined a thing to be so, or that it seemed to him.

6. Ponlo en práctica

   Pick one piece of writing you admire, make notes on it, wait 3 days and rewrite it from the notes, then compare. Draw a grid of 5 habits you want against the days of this week and mark each lapse with a dot; tackle only one habit at a time.