Biography of Benjamin Franklin - Essay Example

? Benjamin Franklin Biography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin was born on 6th January 1706 in Milk Street which was located in Boston city in the United States of America (Franklin, 2001). They were a total of 17 children in their family and his father was a tallow-chandler. Among the seventy children, Benjamin happened to be the youngest and at the age of ten he dropped out of school (Franklin, 2001). He worked as an assistant to his brother James in journal publishing business. Benjamin did not last long in the journal publishing business due to the quarrelling of his brother James (Franklin, 2001). He left the journal publishing business and eloped to New York and from this city he moved on to Philadelphia city where he arrived in October in the year 1723. He was able to secure a job as a printer the work that he did for a very short period of time before he was carried away by the promises of Governor Keith to go to London (Franklin, 2001). The promises of Governor Keith did not materialize and he had to work as a compositor in London city until he was rescued by Denman who was a merchant and he was able to come back to Philadelphia. Back in Philadelphia, Denman was able to secure for him a job in some of his businesses until his sudden demise upon which Benjamin had to make a come back to his earlier business of printing journals (Franklin, 2001). He was able to set up The Pennsylvania Gazette and through this journal he was able to write numerous essays which he later used for agitating reforms in the local politics, Benjamin died at the age of 84 in the year 1790. Accomplishments Benjamin was able to successfully issue an article by the name “Poor Richard’s Almanac” through which he managed to utter pithy messages and wise sayings and from these utterances and sayings he built his reputation (Franklin, 1959). Some of the pithy utterances and wise sayings were borrowed while others were composed and this publication was established in the year 1732. In the year 1758, Benjamin was able to momentarily stop publications of the Almanac articles and instead he converted most of these publications into “Father Abraham’s Sermon” which later emerged as a famous literature during the era of the Colonial America (Franklin, 1959). Major successes Through his involvement with the public affairs, Benjamin was able to set up an Academy which was later repossessed and upgraded into Pennsylvania University. He was also able to establish American Philosophical Society and the purpose of establishment of this society was to enable men who were considered as scientific to be able to share with one another their various discoveries (Franklin, 2001). He was active in politics and was able to secure a seat and later introduced postal system reforms in the home politics. Major failures Benjamin was stained with nepotism since he used his position in politics to advance most of his relatives. He was also able to lose his Assembly seat and in the year 1764 he was sent to England on a mission as the colony agent and during service as an agent he was able to oppose the establishment of the Stamp act, but he lost his petition on the basis of securing a favor for his friend in one of the stamp offices back in the USA as an agent. Leadership approach of Benjamin Franklin In his leadership approach Benjamin is considered as a social innovator and this is evident during the year 1727 and 1757 in which he was able to champion seven leading social innovations and these innovations later changed the nature of the two cities namely Pennsylvania and Philadelphia (Mumford, 2002). Between the era of 1727 and 1757, Benjamin’s social innovations are most evident and some of the areas of innovations include development of the Pennsylvania Stove, gas lamps, and improvement of the various gutters in the streets and the general society welfare (Mumford, 2002). In the year 1727, Benjamin was able to establish Junto club and through this club he was able to pass his intellectual and monetary advancement to fellow tradesmen more so from Philadelphia. In the year 1731, Benjamin together with other nine associates was able to form Subscription Library and this library was able to recognize the need for self-improvement materials (Mumford, 2002). This library later on became one of the leading lending public library in the whole USA and was able to sell close to fifty subscriptions in USA within a time frame of 4 months. In the year 1734 and 1735, Benjamin was also able to set up Fire Fighting Club and this idea came from his publication of the protection of the towns from fire and this club was well received by the people. Many of the residents of Philadelphia city were able to develop building codes through the use of ashes as well as able to regulate the sweeping industry (Mumford, 2002). In the same years Benjamin together with Bartram John were able to establish an academy which was later on upgraded into Pennsylvania University. Benjamin was able to growth as an ethical leader through experience because at the age of ten years he was able to become his father’s assistant in the business of tallow-chandler. He later joined his brother James in his printing business first as a sponsor and afterwards established himself as a nominal editor. All the leadership attributed to Benjamin can be said to have been learnt through experience because he never had skills and knowledge from any academic fields. Servant leader Benjamin can be said to have been a servant leader because during his tenure as a leader he was serving the interests of his local fellows and also his country. For example in the year 1757, he was sent to England and in England his mission was to object contrary to the various influences of Penns more so in the colonial government (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002). His serving as a servant leader was also evident during his five years stay in England whereby he started teaching and enlightening people of the various conditions imposed by the colonial government (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002). After the year 1764, he was again sent to England but this time round he was an agent of the colony and his mission was to levy petition the then King to take up leadership and government from the various proprietors (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002). Summary Benjamin was able to live for a total of 84 years and during his time he significantly contributed to the self-improvement of the welfare of people. He publicly got involved in affairs that affected the common people to be able to provide solutions for some of the problems that were part and parcel of the people. He was able to excel in the fields of scientific innovations and was also able to set up American Philosophical Society that helped to nurture the scientific talents of the scientific men who had scientific discoveries. Through his interests in local politics he was able to secure a seat in the Assembly as a representative for the people. Conclusions This biography of Franklin Benjamin has a lot of teachings and very many lessons can be drawn from it. Some of the lessons that can be learnt from it are self determination, ability to nurture one’s talents, creativity, and innovation. Benjamin was self determined in life and even after being taken to London by Governor Keith he was able to come back to Philadelphia with the help of Denman, while in London he was able to secure for himself a job as a compositor until he was offered a job by Denman. Benjamin was able develop his leadership right from his childhood because at the age of 10 years he was able to acts in the capacity as an assistant to his father tallow-chandler as well as a contributor to his brother’s publishing unit. He was creative and innovative because he was able to set up his own publication unit through which he could publish papers that contained various pithy utterances as well as wise sayings. Most of the employers in the workplaces should be able to apply social innovation leadership approach. References Greenleaf, R.K., & Spears, L.C. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of Legitimate power and greatness (25th anniversary Ed.). New York: Paulist Press Franklin, B. (1959). The papers of Benjamin Franklin: January 1706 to December 1734, Research Journal, 1 (1): 264 Franklin, B. (2001). The autobiography and other writings. New York, NY: Signet Classic Publishers Mumford, M.D. (2002). Social innovation: Ten cases from Benjamin Franklin. Creativity Research Journal, 14 (2): 253 Read More