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    The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and Tips on Business, Money, and Finance
    The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and Tips on Business, Money, and Finance
    The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and Tips on Business, Money, and Finance
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and Tips on Business, Money, and Finance

    By Benjamin Franklin

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    About this ebook

    Ben Franklin’s writings have inspired millions throughout the years, and his advice on how to earn and save money is timeless. The Way to Wealth is a collection of Franklin’s essays and personal letters on how to make money, start a business, and save for the future. Essays include Advice to a Young Tradesman,” which explains how to run a profitable business; The Whistle,” a charming parable on how to prevent greed from trumping profitability; and On Smuggling, and its Various Species,” which reveals the reasons cheaters never succeed. All will help and inspire you on your glorious way to wealth and prosperity.

    Also included is Franklin’s The Way to Make Money Plenty in Every Man’s Pocket,” tidbits from Poor Richard’s Almanack, personal letters to his sister chock-full of advice for a prosperous household, and more! In tough economic times, this book is for anyone who longs for financial stability and growth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkyhorse
    Release dateJan 25, 2001
    ISBN9781626366190
    The Way to Wealth: Advice, Hints, and Tips on Business, Money, and Finance
    Author

    Benjamin Franklin

    Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American writer, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, and diplomat. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin found success at a young age as editor and printer of the Pennsylvania Gazette, a prominent Philadelphia newspaper. From 1732 to 1758, Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a popular yearly pamphlet that earned Franklin much of his wealth. An influential Philadelphian, Franklin founded the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which would become the University of Pennsylvania, in 1751. In addition, Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, as well as the city’s first fire department. As revolutionary sentiment was on the rise in the thirteen colonies, Franklin traveled to London to advocate on behalf of Americans unhappy with British rule, earning a reputation as a skilled diplomat and shrewd negotiator. During the American Revolution, his relationships with French officials would prove essential for the war effort, the success of which depended upon munitions shipments from France. Over the next few decades, he would serve as the first postmaster general of the United States and as governor of Pennsylvania while maintaining his diplomatic duties. A dedicated and innovative scientist, Franklin is credited with important discoveries regarding the nature of electricity, as well as with inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. A slaveowner for many years, Franklin eventually became an abolitionist. Although he failed to raise the issue during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he led the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and wrote essays on the subject of slavery, which he deemed “an atrocious debasement of human nature.”

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      Book preview

      The Way to Wealth - Benjamin Franklin

      e9781616082017_i0002.jpg

      THE WAY TO WEALTH

      As clearly shown in the practice of an old Pennsylvania Almanac, entitled, Poor Richard Improved.

      Courteous Reader,

      I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how much I must have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants’ goods. The hour of the sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? What would you advise us to do? Father Abraham stood up and replied, If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; ‘for a word to the wise is enough,’ as Poor Richard says. They joined in desiring him to speak his mind; and, gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:

      "Friends,’ said he, ‘the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us, by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us: ‘God helps them that help themselves,’ as Poor Richard says.

      I. "It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service; but idleness taxes many of us much more; sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. ‘Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears; while the used key is always bright,’ as Poor Richard says. ‘But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of,’ as Poor Richard says. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that ‘the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and that, ‘there will be sleeping enough in the grave,’ as Poor Richard says.

      " ‘If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be,’ as Poor Richard says, ‘the greatest prodigality’; since, as he elsewhere tells us, ‘Lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough, always proves little enough’. Let us, then, up and be doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. ‘Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while Laziness travels so slowly, that Poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee; and Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,’ as Poor Richard says.

      "So what signifies wishing and hoping for better times? We may make these times better if we bestir ourselves. ‘Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains; then help, hands, for I have no lands,’ or, if I have, they are smartly taxed. ‘He that hath a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor,’ as Poor Richard says; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, ‘at the workingman’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter.’ Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter; for ‘Industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them.’ What though you have found no treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a legacy? ‘Diligence is the mother of luck, and God gives all things to industry. Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.’ Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered to-morrow. ‘One today is worth two tomorrows,’ as Poor Richard says; and farther, ‘Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.’ If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Are you, then, your own master? Be ashamed to catch yourself idle when there is so much to be done for yourself, your family, and your country. Handle your tools without mittens; remember that ‘The cat in gloves catches no mice,’ as Poor Richard says. It is true there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed; but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects; for ‘Constant dropping wears away stones; and by diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable; and little strokes fell great oaks.’

      "Methinks I hear some of you say, ‘Must a man afford himself no leisure?’ I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says: ‘Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.’ Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; for ‘A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. Many, without labour, would live by their wits only, but they break for want of stock;’ whereas industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect. ‘Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I have a sheep and a cow, everybody bids me good morrow.’

      II. "But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eyes, and not trust too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says,

      ‘I never saw an oft-removed tree,

      Nor yet an oft-removed family.

      That throve so well as those that settled be.’

      And again, ‘Three removes are as bad as a fire’; and again, ‘Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee’; and again, ‘If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.’ And again, ‘He that by the plough would thrive, himself must either hold or drive.’

      And again, ‘The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands’; and again, ‘Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge’; and again, ‘Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.’ Trusting too much to others’ care is the ruin of many; for, ‘In the affairs of this world men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of it’; but a man’s own care is profitable; for, ‘If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. A little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost’, being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.

      III. "So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one’s own business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, ‘keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. A fat kitchen makes a lean will’; and

      ‘Many estates are spent in the getting,

      Since women for tea forsook spinning, and

      knitting, And men for punch forsook hewing and

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