Benjamin Franklin has radically changed the world. He played such a pivotal role in the founding of the United States he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. While most Americans know Ben Franklin from the $100 bill, most people don’t realize he was one of the most productive, world-changing humans to ever live. After reading a bit of history about Ben I had two questions. How did he accomplish so much? Does science back my conclusions on his success?

Before we jump into the findings let me explain why I was so fascinated with Benjamin Franklin. Here’s the quickest summary I could put together.

One of 17 children, Ben’s parents couldn’t afford to send him to school. With his formal education ending at 10 years old, young Franklin began an apprenticeship with his older brother James who was a printer. At 17 years old Ben took off for Philadelphia. Despite a lack of formal education and his humble beginnings, Benjamin Franklin went on to do amazing things.

After making his fortune writing and printing newspapers Ben began focusing on good works for the betterment of mankind. “He strove to improve himself cultivating personal virtues and taking on public projects for the benefit of society. One of his first public projects was to organize a block watch and raise money to pave and clean Philadelphia roads. His projects gradually became more ambitious and included creating pensions, providing welfare for widows, creating a volunteer militia, and building the University of Pennsylvania to educate the middle-class children. Franklin was also a founder of the Pennsylvania Hospital, built for those who could not afford care, he built institutions for the mentally disabled, a lending library, fire corps, and insurance. This was long before governments began to provide services to their citizens.” — benjamin-franklin-history.org

How did he accomplish so much? What was Ben Franklin’s secret remedy to success? Fortunately, Ben loved to write. From witty political cartoons to scientific discoveries Ben’s legacy and his secrets to success live on.

Challenge Yourself Intellectually?

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. — Ben Franklin

Despite his lack of formal education, Ben was highly intelligent. Constantly reading, he created a number of systematic ways to improve his writing. He’d mimic the writing style of others and break down writings unto little slips of paper and try to put the story back together again. But does science suggest Ben’s intelligence mattered in his career? More importantly, how do we mimic Ben to be more successful?

J. Robert Baum of Smith School of Business University of Maryland set out to answer just that. Through a carefully conducted study over 3 years, Baum discovered that concrete experience, active experimentation, and those who develop practical intelligence are more likely to run rapidly growing ventures. But what does that mean for us?

As it turns out, I was wrong. Practical intelligence is the ability to apply, use, and implement what you know. It grows by having experience in your respective field. While at first glance I thought Ben Franklin’s success came from a high level of intellect it came from his practical use.

While Ben was just 15 he started writing for his brother’s paper under a pseudonym, Silence Dogood. Filled with advice and criticism of the moral issues around him Dogwood was an early success for Benjamin. So how do we become as successful as Benjamin Franklin?

In today’s day, we have more information at our fingertips than ever before. Whether its Khan Academy, Ted Talks, gutenberg.org or any number of other options. Create a daily, weekly, or monthly plan to grow your practical intelligence. Not by reading and moving on but by learning and then applying it to our daily lives.

Help Yourself By Helping Others

Franklin didn’t just live a life of the sciences. He lived by 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He was constantly striving for perfection but being perfect is an impossible task. So Ben devised a system. Instead of trying to focus on everything at once he focused on one virtue a week trying to live by that virtue for the week. Every week he would move on to the next virtue until he finally finished the cycle. After completing a cycle he would start over again. But that’s not all he did.

From building roads to taking care of widows Ben was a beast at serving his community. This is a man who started fire companies and founded one of the first schools for math and sciences, a school which is an ivy league school, the University of Pennsylvania. Now, I may be a pessimist but hear me out.

Ben Franklin’s big projects didn’t start until he was rich. I think we can all agree we could and would help more if we had more. It’s simple math really, I have a little coming in, so I help a little. I have a lot coming in, so I help a lot. But was this Ben Franklin’s style? Did he wait until he was older to start serving? And what about that darn science? If I’m being honest I have one question that’s more important?

Can I be selfish and justify it with science? Oddly enough, science says I’d be happier if I helped more! What’s the point of being selfish if it isn’t making me happy? Social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn published ground-breaking research on the effect on those who help others. They’re happier. It makes a person happier to help others. Their lives are more complete. By giving, you get joy in return.

Let’s stop thinking about giving as just this moral obligation and start thinking of it as a source of pleasure,” — Elizabeth Dunn

Ted Talk from Elizabeth Dunn “Helping others makes us happier — but it matters how we do it”

So the science says we need to help more to be happier. What about productive Ben? When did he start and how did he do it?

When Ben was 15 he started writing. One of his major topics? The mistreatment of women in the community. Ben

I find it a very difficult Matter to reprove Women separate from the Men; for what Vice is there in which the Men have not as great a Share as the Women? and in some have they not a far greater, as in Drunkenness, Swearing, &c.? — Silence Dogwood aka Benjamin Franklin

Silence Dogood essay 5: “Sir, I Shall here Present your Readers with a Letter …”

From an early age, Ben was fighting for moral goodness. Despite being a poor boy with very little education Ben found a way to help his community. Now on to the practical, what can we do to mimic the man, the myth, the legend Benjamin Franklin?

Two Questions to Ask Yourself Every Day

Ben challenged himself daily. He wanted to make the most of every day. To accomplish as much as Benjamin Franklin we need to make every day count. Thanks to his autobiography we know how he did it. Every morning he asked himself one question. Every night he asked himself one question.

What Good shall I do today?; What good have I done today?

Every day we can do a little good. Not just for ourselves but for others as well. We can make a difference. Help at a soup kitchen. Mow the neighbor’s yard. Find a job where you’re contributing to society. Let’s make our lives count and ask ourselves those two simple questions: What Good shall I do today and what good have I done today?

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Approve not of him who commends all you say. — Ben Franklin

Ben knew the value of having friends that challenged him. So much so that he formed a private group, The Junto. Meeting Friday evenings they’d discuss morals, politics, or natural philosophy. This group became a sounding board, a place where smart, successful people could share ideas and discuss important topics. How did this secret organization work?

The Junto only had a few simple rules. They each had to bring their own questions, and once every three months they had to write and share an essay on any topic they wanted. Besides that, they were under the direction of a president. They had to bring a “sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were contraband” But Ben’s advice for relationships didn’t stop at friendships.

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults. — Benjamin Franklin

Criticism isn’t easy. The de-moralizing opinion of critics can be a real productivity crusher. Maybe Benjamin Franklin had a trick or a unique trait that made him handle it better than the average man. Maybe it was ingrained in his DNA to never get discouraged. What’s science tell us? Do we need objective criticism? How do we stay motivated through criticism?

Michael K. Mount, Murray R. Barrick, and J. Perkins Strauss have published findings regarding our subjective views of ourselves. Not only did they find our self-ratings were less accurate than observer ratings but they also found the observer ratings are a more accurate predictor of job performance. So now we know Ben Franklin was right in trusting others over himself. The question still remains, how do we stay motivated through criticism?

Marcial Losada and Emily Heaphy have published a research paper and found the answer. They found high performing teams would inquire a little more than advocate, provide positive reinforcement more than negative and promote others in conversation more than themselves.

Source: The Role of Positivity and Connectivity in the Performance of Business Teams: A Nonlinear Dynamics Model

The table above is showing how often a team is performing one action over the other. For example, high performing teams will provide positive reinforcement 5.614 times more than negative reinforcement. Contrarily, low-performance teams will only provide positive reinforcement .363 times compared to negative reinforcement. While reviewing the data I saw one thing that struck me.

High-performance teams are sharing a lot more positive reinforcement than negative. Drawing upon both research I feel it’s safe to say that enemies and negative people aren’t the most helpful in our lives but there may be a hint of truth in what they're saying that we don’t recognize about ourselves. In application, scientifically speaking tending put some thought about any objective truth in a negative person says but still, trying to keep more positivity in our lives.

This data brought up another question. The Junto was required to bring up a lot more questions than the above research showed as a high-performance team. This can be understood considering the Juntu was designed to help grow his knowledge and the research is reviewing high performing businesses that aren’t looking for knowledge but a more profitable and coordinated team. But I still had a question. How important is it to discuss issues with others?

In today’s day, thanks to the internet, I can perform research faster than Benjamin Franklin could hop on a horse and exchange pleasantries with the Juntu. Is it still viable that we need a group discussion for the growth of knowledge?

R. Keith Sawyer and Sarah Berson have a fantastic paper on group studying. In conclusion, they tracked every minor interaction of a study group and determined the students were learning faster because they were putting the knowledge into their own words.

That pattern of looking down, thinking about what the professor said and then looking up and putting it into their own words, we felt that was a big explanation for why group studying was helping them learn the material at a deeper level. — Keith Sawyer

This reminded of another study by J. Robert Baum of Smith School of Business University of Maryland. Through a carefully conducted study over 3 years, Baum discovered that concrete experience, active experimentation, and those who develop practical intelligence are more likely to run rapidly growing ventures.

In short, what I believe is happening in a group study you're applying your knowledge to the conversation. Once the knowledge is applied you're able to better retain and in the future use that knowledge again.

It’s not easy for us to get out of our own tribes. We follow people we agree with on Twitter and Facebook, burying opinions and ideas from others. But you need to find your own sounding board. People that challenge you to grow. A safe space where you can be wrong. A coach that can motivate you to be yourself.

This doesn’t mean you need to follow or be around people that are rude. Quite the contrary, Ben documents in his autobiography the first members of his Junto. Every member was highly intelligent and well mannered. The only member he spoke poorly of was a man that was constantly harping on tiny details that soon left the group.

Find people that challenge your status quo but make sure there objective and humble. It can take time to find people that you disagree with but aren’t rude or deeming. Follow an influencer or two on social media that has a new perspective. Find a coach on Coach.me. Join a book club. Get out and find someone with a new perspective.

Schedule your day

It’s the end of another busy day. Even though I got up early, headed into work on-time and chugged away all night I don’t feel as if I accomplished anything significant. I couldn’t complete the personal things I wanted to.

It’s all too easy for this to happen. It happens to all of us. Life happens. The constant day-to-day to-do list grows. From taking out the trash to picking up the kids. We live in a busy world. A world that never sleeps. The constant chatter drowns out big goals. Goals become fantasies, fantasies that we begin to realize will never come true. But there’s a simple change, one that Ben Franklin knew.

How was Benjamin Franklin able to work on himself, make the world a better place, and run a business? Scheduling. To make the most of a day we need to plan it and plan it well. Ben Franklin planned every day. He was such a planner he scheduled a time to plan his day!

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule

After waking, washing up, and prayer Ben would “Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day”. In short, he planned his day. Ben made a conscious effort to not only schedule his day but he decided what he was going to accomplish. But today is a new day. Does science back Ben’s scheduling mania?

Researchers Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch set to see if setting self-imposing deadlines make people procrastinate less. They asked three questions:

Are people willing to self-impose meaningful (i.e., costly) deadlines to overcome procrastination?

Are self-imposed deadlines effective in improving task performance?

When self-imposing deadlines, do people set them optimally, for maximum performance enhancement?

A set of studies examined these issues experimentally, showing that the answer is “yes” to the first two questions, and “no’’ to the third.

As it turns out, setting strict deadlines on yourself is a great way to break the procrastination cycle and get more done.

There’s a boatload of benefits from planning every day. Most importantly you can make time for priorities. There’s always going to be day-to-day items but you’ll never achieve the things you want to achieve without planning. Whether it’s learning a new language or growing a garden, if it’s been on your wish list for a while, put it on your daily schedule to make it a reality.

Start Today

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. — Ben Franklin

Changing your life isn’t an easy task. Changing the world is even harder.

Ben Franklin was a master at getting things done. From starting businesses, creating the University of Pennsylvania, to creating the first fire company in Philadelphia, Ben was a man who knew how to get things done.

What was Ben’s big secret to success? Above all, Ben believed in hard work. He didn’t waste time. He was always busy working. He found pleasure in being a printer and philanthropist. He knew that once a day was over, it was gone forever.

Ben worked tirelessly building a better world. There wasn’t a day that went by that was wasted. Every morning he asked himself “What good shall I do today?” and at the end of the day he asked himself “What good have I done today?” Franklin was a man who loved to change the world. A man who loved to work hard.

There’s no better day to start changing your life and the world than today. Be it something small or large. Every day can bring you closer to achieving your dreams. Start every day asking yourself what good you plan to do. Check-in at the end of the day and ask your self what good you have done. Don’t let life pass you by.