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Description:

Maybe it's just us, but we don't like to put off our dreams. After all, who knows? Tomorrow night, we might not want to have hands that are giant meatballs.

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Transcript

00:04

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: The Original Self-Help Book, a la Shmoop.

00:10

We all want to improve something about ourselves.

00:12

Maybe you'd like to trade the Firestone around your waist for something a little smaller...

00:16

...or maybe you'd like to attract that hunky senior without first having to induce Stockholm

00:20

syndrome. Enter the self-help book.

00:24

Self-help books are tomes of infinite wisdom and great perception…

00:28

…containing advice and prescriptions for achieving perfection in certain areas...

00:33

...like how to be a better pope...

00:35

...or how to get rich by printing counterfeit money.

00:38

Of course, for some people, a self-help book dug out of the bargain bin at Walmart won't

00:44

do.

00:45

Benjamin Franklin, for example, was so awesome that he had to write his own self-help book…

00:50

…aptly titled The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

00:55

Franklin dabbled in just about everything

00:57

He served as the first American ambassador to France...

01:00

...he suggested that the turkey be the national bird of the United States...

01:04

...he invented bifocals… and fathered an illegitimate son.

01:09

Truly, Franklin was a Renaissance man. Yet even he sometimes thought he could use

01:14

improvement.

01:15

Maybe it was because he wasn't as good at the glass harmonica as George Washington was.

01:19

So, Franklin sought perfection by listing thirteen moral virtues in a small notebook.

01:24

Then he kept track of how often he screwed up.

01:27

Today's self-help books are very different from the scheme Franklin used.

01:31

While Franklin wanted to improve his character – because no one needs two children born

01:35

out of wedlock...

01:37

...the modern self-help industry caters to those who want to correct superficial flaws.

01:41

Also, Franklin understood that there was only one way he was going to become a better person…

01:45

…by working hard and exerting self-control.

01:49

Because so many of the flaws we see in ourselves today are physical…

01:52

…hard work and self-control can't always take us as close to the perfection we desire…

01:58

…as money and a good plastic surgeon. The belief that we can achieve whatever we

02:03

want, that we can be perfect, is as American as the bald eagle...

02:09

...um, turkey.

02:10

Yet our perception of what it means to be a better person has morphed over time.

02:14

Perhaps we should all take a page from Franklin's book...

02:17

...so that, when we seek to improve ourselves, we do so not just for our own benefit, but

02:23

for the benefit of others.

02:26

We thought you might gobble that up.

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