Friday, January 17, 2014

Benjamin Franklin


Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out – it is this very attitude that propels one to greatness. Don’t believe it? Take a look at the life of the man who uttered these words of wisdom, and you shall be convinced!

Benjamin Franklin was born on 17th of January, 1706, to a poor soap-maker from Boston, Massachusetts. Despite lacking formal education, Benjamin excelled in whatever he did. He started working in his brother James’s printing press at the tender age of 12 and quickly learnt the art of printing. 

His quote “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about” reminds one, of the time when under the alias of Mrs. Silence Dogood, he penned 16 letters that commented on the various aspects of colonial America, as his brother would not print his work. He left his house to seek out his own when he was just 17, following his brother’s displeasure of the same. 

“Energy and persistence conquer all things” is perhaps what he learnt, when he ventured into the unknown streets of New York and then Philadelphia where he established a successful printing press all by himself. He steadily but surely ascended the ladders of wisdom, society and politics, to the extent that he was chosen by the people of his state to represent them and later to form the constitution of their nation! He also made a significant contribution in the field of science by revealing the innate nature of electricity; a dilemma that dumbfounded scholars for decades. 

By the time he grew old, he had earned titles like author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat, which aptly describe the multi-faceted person he was! 

This Founding Father of America’s original genius was an attribute that set him apart from the rest and the search for truth was his singular objective, which he did well with reason as his guide. 

Let us salute his courage, revolutionary ideas and never-say-die attitude and try to imbibe the qualities that made him great!

-           Deep Trivedi 
 


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