Million Dollar Habits – Page 9
The First Millionaire
During the same period,
Benjamin Franklin, who began as a printer’s apprentice
and went on to become the first self-made millionaire in the American colonies,
adapted a similar process of personal development.
As a young man, Benjamin Franklin felt
that he was a little rough, ill mannered
and argumentative. He recognized that his attitudes and behaviors were creating
animosity toward him from his associates and coworkers. He resolved to change by
rewriting the script of his own personality.
He began by making up a list of 12 virtues that he
felt the ideal person would
possess. He then concentrated on the development of one virtue each week. All
week long, as he went about his daily affairs, he would remind himself to practice
that virtue, whether it was temperance, tolerance
or tranquility, on every occasion
that it was called for. Over time, as he developed these virtues and made these
habits
a part of his character, he would practice one virtue for a period of two
weeks, then three weeks, then one virtue per month.
Over time, he became one of the most popular personalities and statesmen of the
age. He
became enormously influential, both in Paris as an Ambassador from the
United States during the Revolutionary War, and during the Constitutional
Convention, when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
for the United States was
debated, negotiated and agreed upon. By working on himself to develop the habits
of an excellent person, he made himself into a person capable of shaping the course
of history.
