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The Source of Enlightenment: How Franklin Achieved Success

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The Source of Enlightenment: How Franklin Achieved Success

With his commitment to personal achievement and to improving the lives of his fellow Americans, Franklin proved to be one of the most successful statesmen, writers, entrepreneurs and intellectuals of his time. Given that his father was a soap maker who couldn’t afford education for his 17 children, Franklin’s success is all the more astonishing. How did Franklin take control of his situation and turn his destiny around?

He Never Stopped Learning: Whether it was from a book he had saved up for weeks to be able to afford, or a conversation with a fellow businessman, Franklin sought out knowledge wherever he could. “More is to be learned with the ear than the tongue,” he said. Franklin believed that only through a process of continual learning would he be able to live life to its fullest potential. It was his curiosity and love of education that allowed Franklin to succeed.

He Made Good Friends: By building a strong reputation and getting his name into as many circles as he could, Franklin was able to make the connections he needed to reach the top. He understood the importance of networking and shrewdly took advantage of his prominence in order to achieve his goals.

He Delved into the Unknown: Franklin’s mind was never at rest; if it wasn’t one question plaguing him, it was another and he was always determined to get to the bottom of it. He wasn’t afraid of taking risks and experimenting with bold, new hypotheses. Key to any business, Franklin understood that it was only in continually improving, thinking of new ideas and trying new things would he finally achieve success. As he famously wrote once, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Accordingly, everything else had room for experimentation.

He Worked Hard: “He that lives upon hope will die fasting,” Franklin said. He believed that those who were successful were so because they worked just a little bit harder than everyone else. He despised laziness and procrastination, feeling that it was his duty to both himself and his community to use his time as wisely as possible and make a valuable contribution to the world. It was his strong work ethic that helped set Franklin apart from the rest.

He Gave Back: “If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life,” said Franklin. By helping those around him, Franklin believed he was planting seeds for the future. In his desire to “imitate Jesus and Socrates”, Franklin attempted to achieve the good life by setting goals beyond the self. For him, business could not be seen as separate from the community in which it was operated and in which its employees lived. Franklin believed that citizens had to take responsibility for their community and he lived his life as an example of this philosophy.

A true renaissance man, Franklin believed that the noblest question in the world was “What good may I do in it?” He spent the 84 long years of his life trying to answer that question as best he knew how.





The Source of Enlightenment How Franklin Achieved Success

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Dianne Crampton

Dianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here.

Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009.  Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010.  To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here.

- Visit Dianne Crampton's Website

Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website


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