Franklin

“He and his boyhood friends fished and frolicked in a nearby pond. An avid swimmer, he designed rudimentary fins to propel himself faster across the water; other times, he floated on his back and let himself be pulled along by a kite. 

Josiah initially thought His Son 

should study for The Ministry and 

enrolled him at age 8 in the Boston 

school that prepared students 

for Harvard College. 

But The Academy proved 

too expensive, and eager to have 

another set of hands, 

His Father put him to Work in 

The Family's candle shop. 

He was 10 years old; 

his schooling was over. 

“I Think it was 

crucial to Franklin's success 

that he had very little 

formal education. 

When people go through

formal schools, they learn 

what you're supposed to know. 

They also learn 

what you don't have to know. 

With Franklin, 

he never knew 

what he didn't have to know, 

so, he assumed 

he had to know everything.”

In 1718, at age 12, Franklin began The Work 

“that would define the rest of his life. 

He signed a 9-year apprenticeship, legally indenturing himself to his older brother James, who had opened a printing shop in Boston. 

“Printing was an amazing business if you were both clever with your hands and good at thinking. Printers are setting type upside-down and backward. And you have to be really hyper-literate to understand how language works that way, and to correct things as you go along, and get it right.”

Handling the heavy 

sets of lead type 

strengthened and broadened 

his shoulders. 

Having access to books 

strengthened and liberated 

his mind. 

“Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and had to be returned early in the morning lest it should be missed. 

And all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.”

Here was a kid who only had 

two years of formal education, ever. 

So, what did he do? 

He taught himself how to write. 

He composed poetry... 

Including a ballad commemorating the recent killing of Blackbeard the pirate. He read articles from "The Spectator," a London periodical, and, on paper salvaged from the print shop, attempted to reproduce them by memory. 

He stayed up late at night and rose early each morning to continue his reading before the shop opened. 

"I was," Franklin said, 

"extremely ambitious."