Benjamin Franklin's The Way To Wealth

When we think of success and wealth, we often think financial benefits; but no matter how we define success, we soon come to realize that there is no specific answer that will guide us down the right path to our personal success. We all have different ambitions and priorities, which mean that different accomplishments and behaviors will make us feel better about ourselves. To be successful the individual must understand what is important and must recognize one’s strengths and weaknesses. When we hear the name “Benjamin Franklin” we automatically think that he was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; but he was much more than that. Not only was he a successful scientist, he was an inventor and a politician. But not many individuals …show more content…
During this time, it was common to flaunt your wealth by living an expensive lifestyle; which often lead to a competition of living an over-the-top lifestyle. Because of this over-the-top lifestyle, many of them often went into huge debts. Due to these increasing debts, Franklin decided to go against society’s tradition, emphasizing the idea of saving and investing wisely. When we hear the words success and wealth we automatically think about materialistic things and financial benefits, but in “The Way to Wealth” success and wealth can be explored as being socially respected amongst colleagues and peers, having personal independence, and also having financial security; just to name a few. “…drive thy business, let not that drive thee; and early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” (Franklin, 2). Throughout the story Franklin teaches his readers that the way of becoming successful is through hard work and …show more content…
Bartleby refused to work and instead, he rejected any type of work his boss asked him to do; often, leaving the Lawyer to do Bartleby’s work. By Bartleby refusing to work and Franklin telling his readers to learn how to not follow society’s traditions about wealth, both of these characters are rebelling on the idea of what society might consider a “norm.” But with rebelling with society’s norm, this rebellious behavior caused Bartleby’s co-workers to reject him because he was not behaving in the same way as everyone else in the office. Just how Bartleby’s co-workers did not accept him for his behavior, society during Franklin’s era, individuals were rejected simply because they refused to follow the tradition of flaunting their