The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Ambition

As a young guy Franklin's susceptible to flattery and status, and when high-ranking men suggest he start up his own business, Franklin's all ears. Governor Keith and Colonel French tempt Franklin with ideas about government-related success and with Madeira. Liquor is just as convincing as their ideas for his promotion, but even more delicious is the idea that he'd have such important "Influence" working on his behalf.

Franklin puts himself down, saying he's just a "poor Boy," but for a simple guy he's meeting a lot of high-ranking officials. Here, Franklin achieves a kind of temporary equality with this governor by using the cultural capital – his self-education – that he possesses. In other words, he's able to talk to the governor like an equal because he's done such an impressive amount of reading.

Franklin is tempted by the dubious honor of opening and running a swimming school. It's hard to imagine his ambitious ideas of empire-building and scientific discovery being satisfied with teaching English kids how to swim. There can't be so much money, or honor, in teaching swimming – no offense to swim teachers – that running a swimming school could best helping run a national government.

Here, Abel James is encouraging Franklin to keep writing by appealing to his ambitious side. He doesn't just stop at flattering Franklin personally or complimenting how "pleasing" his book could be, he asserts that Franklin's book is going to have impact on "millions" of people. What's funny about this is that James is right. Franklin's book is "useful and entertaining," and, as a long-term bestseller, it has been read by tons of people. In what we can say is a kind of "speech-act" (very basically, that's a technical term for how saying something can call it into being), James foretells the future of the Autobiography.

Franklin's cluing us in to one of the key components of successful people: don't let your ambition show on the outside. If you really are ambitious about "Projects," you'll let go of your ego for the greater good of whatever you're supporting. By putting your ego aside, this passage says, it's much easier to get other people to help you out and take on aspects of the project too. If you try to steal all the credit, though, to gratify your personal ambition, projects like these may not take off at all.

Hard work reaps its own rewards. Franklin's moderately ambitious, but he doesn't hope for or plan on hanging out with monarchs. Because he's so industrious, though, his good works lead him to even higher honors than he had aspired to. He seems to only be ambitious about making a nice salary and a difference in the world, but ends up spending time with prominent heads of state.

The kind of ambition Franklin shares with us is always based in practicality. He sees value in this promotion on many levels: it's an immediate raise, but it also has all this networking potential to get other jobs and meet new clients. He approaches this government position as a businessman. And yet, it doesn't seem like Franklin's taking advantage of anyone or stepping on any toes. He's just acting on his instincts in a reasonable way.

Franklin's only human – whose ego wouldn't be stroked by these kinds of promotions and raises? This language shows him as someone who's not afraid to admit his ambitious tendencies, or his hope for better things, while still being mindful of his origins, where he came from, and how hard he's worked to get where he is. What Franklin values here, too, is that he doesn't ask for this kind of honor and increased responsibility, people are just giving it to him. That's a pretty subtle way of seeing one's ambition pay off.

In this moment, Franklin says he's embarrassed to be publicly honored like this. It's funny that he is ambitious about effecting change in the world around him, founding institutions and sharing his inventions and ideas, but he's less excited about a bunch of guys with swords escorting him around. Some people would be all about this public acknowledgment of their contributions. We can see this attitude as reminding us of Franklin's practicality and the humility that he often, if not always, practices – and how those qualities are so bound up with the real, human ambition he does possess.

Here, Franklin can be seen as speaking on behalf of America as a growing nation (although it's not being revolutionary yet). Like Franklin, America has dreams and goals – it too aspires to better things. America has dreams of governing itself, of not being run roughshod by the English government, and of making laws that can't be knocked down. Franklin's just standing up for them.