this is lesson 4 of BFS financial lessons. Surround Yourself with Friends Who Share Your Values For myself, I immediately got into work at Palmer’s, a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, where I continued near a year. I was pretty diligent, but I spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings at plays and public amusements. We had nearly consumed all my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. He seemed quite to have forgotten his wife and child, and I by degrees my engagements with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return. This was another of the great errata of my life, which I could wish to correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, by our expenses, I was constantly kept unable to pay my passage. - From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin When Franklin was still starting out in the printing business and living in London, he palled around with his friend, James Ralph. While Franklin worked hard at a printing house, the flighty Ralph, who had arrived in London without a dollar to his name, half- hardheartedly and unsuccessfully looked for work as an actor, clerk, and journalist, and borrowed money from Franklin to fund his unemployment. The two friends later had a falling out, and Ralph never repaid Franklin the 27 pounds (“a great sum out of my small earnings!” Franklin recalled) that he owed him. After this experience, Franklin was much more judicious about whom he associated with, and spent his life seeking out men and women who shared his high values and forming mutual self-improvement groups, like the Junto, where he and his friends could challenge each other’s ideas and help elevate each other’s hearts and minds.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:47:02 +0000