Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, born on January 6, 1706, was an exceptionally intelligent and gifted individual. He went from being a poor uneducated child into a wealthy intelligent man through his self-improvement and purpose. He was a printer, scientist, writer, diplomat and political theorist. In the first part of his autobiography, he wrote to his son telling him about his family and wrote his life story explaining his experiences, struggles and accomplishments. Throughout his life he worked on self-improvement and shared his own experience in hopes that his son and others would learn from it. Starting his intent on self-improvement when he was a young teenager, he was motivated to work on his own character writing the thirteen virtues to help improve it. Franklin established a group of people who wanted to increase their own character and help others as well.

Benjamin Franklin wasn't only just an inventor, publisher, diplomat, or theorist; he was also an educator, using his life as his classroom and his colleagues as pupils. He used his life experiences as well as his faults as the curriculum and then taught it to others. Throughout his life he helped others to better themselves. Whether it was with his training of young apprentices in the printing trade or with his political advice to governors, Benjamin Franklin was continually eager to help others to better their circumstances and to educate themselves. Franklin felt that everyone needed an education no matter what diverse background they were from. He was instrumental in the formation of the first public school and library partly because he knew education would be needed for success in life.

All through Benjamin Franklin's autobiography he points out his short falls or mistakes, which he refers to as errata (Franklin, 1909, pp. 20, 32, 40). However, Franklin learned from these mistakes and did not repeat them, always looking for ways to improve himself. In 1728, he wrote a Liturgy for his private use entitled Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion. In this Liturgy, Franklin listed thirteen virtues by which he would live. He would repeatedly work on one of these thirteen virtues until he became proficient at it and then move on to the next one until all thirteen virtues were mastered. He carried a little book in which he kept track of how many times he didn't follow the virtues. He decided to give a week's strict attention to each virtue, while letting the others to chance. This is one example of how Franklin was consistently trying to improve himself, which would ultimately improve his relations with the ones he surrounded himself with. Also in his book, he had his daily routine written down accounting for every hour of the day with a certain time set aside to critique each day, around seven or eight, asking himself what good he had done that day in order to do his self-examination (Franklin, 1909, pp. 83).

Franklin undoubtedly held himself