Benjamin Franklin With Words of Wisdom

Allow me to diverge for a post away from the world of finance. I am a pursuer of wisdom. Knowledge is cheap. Wisdom is priceless. Usually every couple weeks or once a month I will read something that blows me away that I think is rich with wisdom that I had never thought of before. I had one of those moments yesterday reading Ben Franklin - America's original Entrepreneur.

In the book he was talking about how early in his career he was elected as the clerk to the General Assembly. He was chosen the first time with no opposition whatsoever. When he came up for a vote again a year later a new member stood up and gave a long speech on why Mr. Franklin should not be reelected but why they should vote for someone else. Well Franklin ended up still being voted in but thought it best that he not remain enemies with this new member of the General Assembly. I will let Franklin pick it up from there.

Let me say something this new Assembly member who appeared to dislike me. He was an educated gentleman with a good-sized fortune and talents capable of gaining him great political influence over time - and this indeed happened. I thought it a bad idea to try to change his opinion of me by catering to him in a subservient fashion. Rather, I took a different route that would better preserve both our dignities. I had heard that in his personal library he had a copy of a rare and interesting book. I wrote him a note, asking whether he would do me the favor of lending me the book for a few days so that I might glance through it. He sent me it immediately, and I returned it within a week with another note, expressing my appreciation.

The next time we met in the Assembly, he spoke to me - something he had never before done - and he did so with great civility. From then on, we helped one another and our friendship continued until his death. This incident illustrates the truth of a proverb I had previously learned which states, "Expect more help from those who have once done you a favor than from those for whom you have done a favor." It also demonstrates the wisdom of taking action to remove conflict, as most other roads will tend toward escalation

That blew me out of the water. I for one had never heard that proverb in my life. It is also very counter intuitive. When people have conflicts today most try to just stay out of the way of the person they are in conflict with or try to do some special favor to get on their good side. Here Franklin found a common interest and asked for a favor instead of giving one. Sorry if no one else is as awed with that as I was but I thought the wisdom contained in those two paragraphs is priceless.