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Entrepreneur Spotlight

Each month, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute will recognize an entrepreur from the Temple community, from the Philadelphia region, or from the annals of business history.  Their stories provide valuable insight into the entrepreneurial mindset, and about what it takes to succeed with new ventures.

Benjamin Franklin

His Life


Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts. He was the 17th child and youngest son of Josiah Franklin. His mother, Abigail Franklin was Josiah’s second wife. At the age of 8, Franklin was sent to Boston’s Free Latin School by his father, who had intended for Franklin to have a career with the Church. His father changed his mind a year later and removed Franklin from Boston Latin, although he allowed him to continue taking private lessons. In addition to the lessons, Franklin’s father employed the boy at his candle making shop until he was 12. At 12, Franklin began an apprenticeship at his bother James’ print shop. He signed a contract to work for his brother for 9 years. During his tenure at his brother’s shop, Franklin helped to publish the New England Courant, the second newspaper in the colonies (after the Boston Newsletter) and the first newspaper that was considered to be independent from the King’s grasp. Articles in the paper were published anonymously, and Benjamin used the opportunity to have some of his writings published.
Benjamin and James did not get along during their time together, and when Franklin was 17, he left the apprenticeship in violation of his contract and ran away to Philadelphia. He worked for a printer there and in London, a city in which he spent considerable time.


On September 1, 1732 Benjamin Franklin married Deborah Read. They would go on to have two children – a boy, Francis Folger Franklin, who was born in 1732 and died of smallpox and a girl, Sarah Franklin, who born in 1743. Although not with Read, Franklin had another son, William, who would eventually go on to become the colonial governor of New Jersey.
The year after his son was born, Benjamin Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack under the pseudonym Richard Saunders or “Poor Richard.” After his autobiography (which was published posthumously), the Almanack was his most famous work. It continuously sold about 10,000 copies a year and was published by Franklin from 1732 to 1757. It contained weather related information, aphorisms, maxims, and other tidbits about how Franklin believed people should live life. (For example, the 1737 edition of the Almanack contained a section “Hints for those who would be Rich”.)


In October of 1748, Franklin left the sidelines of Philadelphia politics and was elected councilman. He would eventually serve as Justice of the Peace in Pennsylvania and then later as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Franklin would ultimately play a key role in the American Revolution. He was a delegate to the Albany Congress (from which the Articles of Confederation grew), the Second Continental Congress, and spent time advocating America’s cause of freedom to the French. Franklin is responsible for significant revisions to Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and is the only founding father to have signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris (which he negotiated in 1785) and the United States Constitution.


Franklin died when he was 84 years old on April 17, in 1790. He was buried in Philadelphia at the Christ Church Burial Ground.


During his lifetime, Franklin invented, proposed, or founded: the lightning rod, an iron furnace stove, the first fire company, the first fire insurance company, the first public library, the odometer, a long arm, bifocals, the glass armonica, Daylight Savings Time, catheter, the political cartoon, the American Philosophical Society, Pennsylvania Hospital, a phonetic alphabet, and “political arithmetic” (demographics).

Franklin’s Entrepreneurial Rules


Ben Franklin was known throughout the world for the witty sayings that appeared in Poor Richard’s Almanack. Following those sayings contributed to Franklin’s success as an Entrepreneur and Businessman.
1. Look before or you’ll find yourself behind.
2. He that won’t be counsell’d, can’t be help’d.
3. Keep thy shop & thy shop will keep thee.
4. Success has ruin’d many a Man.
5. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
6. Three may keep a Secret if two are dead.
7. Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
8. Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck.
9. Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half-shut afterwards.
10. The noblest question in the world is What Good may I do in it?
11. God helps them that help themselves.
12. The Masterpiece of Man, is to live to the purpose.
13. Well done is better than well said.
14. How few there are who have courage enough to own their Faults, or resolution enough to mend them.
15. Humility makes great men twice honourable.
16. He that can have Patience, can have what he will.
17. Search others for their virtues, thy self for they vices.
18. There’s more old Drunkards than old Doctors. The ancients tel us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.
19. Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
20. Love, and be lov’d.
21. One Man may be more cunning than another; but not more cunning than every body else.
22. There is no little enemy.
23. If you would be reveng’d of your enemy, govern yourself.
24. Mine is better than Ours.
25. Without justice, courage is weak.
26. Gifts much expected, are paid, not given.
27. Tricks and Treachery are the Practice of Fools, that have not Wit enough to be honest.
28. He that sells upon trust, loses many friends, and always wants money.
29. He that waits upon Fortune is never sure of dinner.
30. Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.
31. Men & Melons are hard to know.
32. Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn.
33. Industry, Perseverance, & Frugality make Fortune yield.
34. Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise.
35. Great-Almsgiving, lessens no Man’s living.
36. Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbors, and let every New-Year find you a better man.
37. What is Serving God? ‘Tis doing Good to Man.
38. Necessity never made a good bargain.
39. Avoid dishonest Gain: No price can recompense the Pangs of Vice
40. The Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.
41. If you’d have it done, Go: If not, send.
42. Gifts burst rocks.
43. Haste makes Waste.
44. Many would live by their wits, but break for a want of Stock
45. Cunning proceeds from Want of Capacity
46. He that cannot obey, cannot command.
47. You may give a Man an Office, but you cannot give him Discretion.
48. Hope of gain lessens pain.
49. A good Example is the best sermon.
50. Who has deceiv’d thee so oft as thy self?
51. Half the Truth is often a great Lie.
52. Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.
53. Changing Countries or Beds cures neither a bad Manager nor a Fever.
54. He that would catch Fish, much venture his Bait.
55. He that resolve to mend hereafter; resolves not to mend now.

Why the Buzz?


To quote John C. Bogle, founder and former chief Executive of The Vanguard Group in Blaine McCormick’s book Ben Franklin, America’s Original Entrepreneur:


“These creations reflect Dr. Franklin’s inspiring 18th-century version of entrepreneurship. They reflect the applications of his relentless energy and persistence to the service of the community’s greater good; his invention - largely through trial and error and common sense - of devices that would improve the community’s quality of life; and his view that virtue is not only achievable by us mortals, but is the principal requirement of a life well-lived. For Franklin, “knowledge was not the personal property of its discoverer, but the common property of all. As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,” he wrote, “we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.”


If you’d like to learn more about Benjamin Franklin, check out the websites below:

Benjamin Franklin & His Inventions - Provided by the Franklin Institute

Ben Franklin| An Extraordinary Life, An Electric Mind - Provided by PBS

A Quick Biography of BenFranklin - Provided by USHistory.Org

Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History - Provided by J.A. Leo Lemay at the U. of Delaware

Poor Richard's Almnack - Provided by the U.S. State Department

Benjamin Franklin Search Engine - Provided by Vivisimo

Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World - Provided by the National Constitution Center

Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

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