The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin

Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin debuted on PBS last night and will continue tonight. If you missed it, I am sure you will have many opportunities to watch it when it is re-run. Benjamin Franklin’s summary of his advice on “The Way to Wealth” appeared in his 1758 and final edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac. The entire 25 year run of the Almanac is still being published and various editions are easily available at online booksellers and many brick and mortar stores and public libraries.

There are many versions of The Way to Wealth and they are basically the same but are edited with slight differences. I read it occasionally because it has some great ideas and is inspiring. It is also a very short read.

I have used The Way to Wealth as a basis for a management and leadership speech, and with Ken Burns’ new program I decided to relook at what I wrote. I also decided to redo my earlier version to keep it as close as possible to the manner and style of Franklin’s original word usage, phrasing and syntax. I changed some of the spelling to make it conform to current usage (especially changing the f to s) but kept Almanack with the k as he wrote it and maintained the original style as much as possible.

I have a photographic reproduction of the original 1758 Poor Richard’s Almanac with The Way to Wealth interspersed throughout that final edition. Some of Franklin’s prose is considered an old-fashioned way of expressing certain phrases but I liked the message and the way he expressed and delivered it. I also saw where changes could be made to more appropriate current vocabulary but thought it also took away some of Franklin’s flavor and style, so I did not modernize those words.

The purpose of reading something like this is to pick up ideas or become energized to make some changes in habits or ways of conducting your life, financial and business affairs and activities. I felt that the way it was originally written had a better opportunity for this than making changes that would possibly make some of the phrases read better but not move or inspire the reader to change anything.

Franklin was an amazing person and a recognized inventor and scientist with a plethora of accomplishments that volumes have been written about and are still being published. He was also a self-taught, self-made man, and an entrepreneur for his entire professional life, with an entrepreneurial mindset and spirit, applied to the remainder of his life after he put himself in a position to not have to worry about making a living. According to The Wealthy 100 / From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates – A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, Benjamin Franklin was the 4^th wealthiest American when he died in 1790. Evidently, he practiced what he preached, and in the case with The Way to Wealth, also wrote about.

Franklin wrote The Way to Wealth as a lecture or sermon by Father Abraham while he wrote the original information using the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. So he used a pseudonym to paraphrase what he wrote under a pseudonym. He also started his writing career when he was pretty young and used the pseudonym of Silence Dogood. He was a man with a pretty big ego who occasionally subrogated his ego in favor of getting his views known and adopted. I do not think his use of the name of Richard Saunders was a secret, but Silence Dogood certainly was, and so were some of his other writings.

Imagine that this 1758 article is still relevant more than 260 years afterward and the practical sensible wisdom this man had. I believe this short tome is well worth reading and am pleased to send you a copy. Just email me at [email protected] and put BF Way to Wealth as the subject and no message is necessary.

Enjoy this quick read and if you get one actionable thought or idea, you will be richly repaid for your time. To quote from it, “hearken to good advice.”