Western Culture

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Western Culture
DISCOVERS THE SAME PRINCIPLES SUCCESS FORMULA
The best way to predict the future is to create
it -- Peter Drucker
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Benjamin Franklin

• Author (Poor Richards Almanac), Printer,
  Postman, Statesman, Diplomat, Inventor (bifocals,
  stove, heating, armonica, lightning rod),
  Soldier, Philosopher, Scientist
• Co-founded 1st American hospital, 1st
  subscription library, started police force, fire
  company and street lighting in Philadelphia
• The only individual to sign all 4 founding
  documents of the United States (Declaration of
  Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S.
  Constitution, Bill of Rights) and shaped the
  Albany Plan of Union, Treaty with France, ...
• The most accomplished American of his time
• Of all those men who made independence possible,
  none mattered more than Franklin and only
  Washington mattered as much
• One of the most popular men of his time and yet
  people DISLIKED him in his youth

Cicero for Rome and Franklin for America
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Benjamin Franklins Plan for Moral Perfection

• It was about this time I conceivd the bold and
  arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection.
  I wisd to live without committing any Fault at
  any time I would conquer all that either Natural
  Inclination, Custom or Company might lead me
  into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was
  right and wrong, I did not see why I might not
  always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon
  found I had undertaken a Task of more Difficulty
  than I had imagined. While my Attention was taken
  up in guarding against one Fault, I was often
  surprised by another Habit took the Advantage of
  Inattention. Inclination was sometimes too strong
  for Reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere
  speculative Conviction that it was our interest
  to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to
  prevent our Slipping and that the contrary
  Habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and
  established, before we can have any Dependence on
  a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this
  purpose I therefore contrived the following
  Method.

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• 1. Temperance - Eat not to dullness drink not to
  elevation.
• 2. Silence - Speak not but what may benefit
  others or yourself avoid trifling conversation.
• 3. Order - Let all your things have their places
  let each part of your business have its time.
• 4. Resolution - Resolve to perform what you
  ought perform without fail what you resolve.
• 5. Frugality - Make no expense but to do good to
  others or yourself, i.e. waste nothing.
• 6. Industry - Lose no time be always employd in
  something useful cut off all unnecessary
  actions.
• 7. Sincerity - Use no hurtful deceit think
  innocently and justly and, if you speak, speak
  accordingly.
• 8. Justice - Wrong none by doing injuries, or
  omitting the benefits that are your duty.
• 9. Moderation - Avoid extremes forbear resenting
  injuries so much as you think they deserve.
• 10. Cleanliness - Tolerate no uncleanliness in
  body, cloaths, or habitation.
• 11. Tranquility - Be not disturbed at trifles, or
  at accidents common or unavoidable.
• 12. Chastity - Rarely use venery but for health
  or offspring never to dulness, weakness, or the
  injury of your own or anothers peace or
  reputation
• 13. Humility - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

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• FOCUS (do once a week on a 3x5 index card)
• My intention being to acquire the Habitude of
  all these Virtues, I judged it would be well not
  to distract my Attention by attempting the whole
  at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time
  and, when I should be master of that, then to
  Proceed to another, and so on, till I should have
  gone through the thirteen and, as the previous
  Acquisition of some might facilitate the
  Acquisition of certain others, I arrangd them
  with that view.
• RECORD, MONITOR, MEASURE
• I made a little Book, in which I allotted a page
  for each of the Virtues. I ruled each page with
  red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for
  each day of the Week, marking each column with a
  letter for the day. I crossed these columns with
  thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each
  line with the first letter of one of the virtues,
  on which line, and in its proper column, I might
  mark, by a little black spot, every Fault I found
  upon Examination to have been committed
  respecting that Virtue upon the day.

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Franklins Autobiography and The Art of Virtue ...
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• DAILY METHOD (CONSISTENCY, DISCIPLINE)
• I determined to give a weeks strict Attention
  to each of the Virtues successively. Thus in the
  first week, my great guard was to avoid every the
  least offence against Temperance, leaving the
  other virtues to their ordinary chance, only
  marking every evening the Faults of the day.
  Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first
  line, marked T (for Temperance), cleared of
  spots, I supposd the habit of that virtue so
  much Strengthened, and its opposite Weakened,
  that I might venture extending my attention to
  include the next, and for the following week keep
  both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the
  last, I could go through a course complete in
  Thirteen weeks and Four Courses in a year. And
  like him who, having a garden to weed, does not
  attempt to Eradicate all the bad herbs at once,
  which would exceed his reach and his strength,
  but works on one of the beds at a time, and,
  having accomplishd the first, proceeds to a
  second, so I should have, I hoped, the
  encouraging pleasure of Seeing on my pages the
  Progress I made in Virtue, by Clearing
  successively my lines of their spots, till in the
  end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in
  viewing a Clean Book, after a Thirteen weeks
  daily Examination.

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The Advantages of this Program

• First, Ben Franklin had the satisfaction of
  seeing his errors gradually diminish due to this
  technique.
• Second, he was a better and happier man than he
  otherwise would have been had he not attempted
  the task.
• Buddha once said that without meditation
  accomplishment, belief in karma and acting upon
  that belief was still the best betsince it
  would help you produce the best current life with
  certainty, and the best future life if it indeed
  existed.
• When he reached the age of seventy-eight,
  Franklin said that the process had made him a
  better and happier man, and concluded his
  autobiography by writing, I hope, therefore,
  that some of my descendents may follow the
  example and reap the benefit.

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Franklins Epitaph
The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover
of an old book, its contents torn and stripped of
its lettering and gilding, lies here food for
worms, But the work shall not be lost, for it
will as he believed appear once more in a new and
more elegant edition revised and corrected by the
author. -- Age 22
When I see nothing annihilated (in the works of
God) and not a drop of water wasted, I cannot
suspect the annihilation of souls, or believe
that He will suffer the daily waste of millions
of minds ready made that now exist, and put
Himself to the continual trouble of making new
ones. Thus, finding myself to exist in the world,
I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always
exist and, with all the inconveniences human
life is liable to, I shall not object to a new
edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata
of the last may be corrected."
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Aristotles Viewpoint
Many problems that seem intractable to modern
psychology can be addressed by principles
articulated clearly by Aristotle. He pointed
out that virtue, which he defined as the control
of the appetites by the reason, is a kind of
habit. Learning what is good for you, and then
developing good habits to practice it -- much as
athletes practice for their sport -- and
ultimately learning to like what is good for you,
is the key to success and happiness.
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Frank Bettger - How I Raised Myself from Failure
to Success in Selling

• I followed his plan exactly as Benjamin
  Franklin told me how he used it. I just took it
  and applied it to selling. Of Franklins 13
  subjects, I chose 6 and then substituted 7 others
  which I thought would be more helpful to me in my
  business, subjects in which I was especially
  weak. Here is my list and the order in which I
  used them
• 1. Enthusiasm. 7. Sincerity Deserve
  Confidence.
• 2. Order self-organization. 8. Knowledge of
  My Business.
• 3. Think in terms of others interests. 9.
  Appreciation and Praise.
• 4. Questions. 10. Smile Happiness.
• 5. Key issue. 11. Remember names and faces.
• 6. Silence listen. 12. Service and
  Prospecting.
• 13. Closing the Sale Action.

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I made up a 3 x 5 card, a pocket reminder,
for each one of my subjects, with a brief summary
of the principles, The first week, I carried
the card on Enthusiasm in my pocket. At odd
moments during the day, I read these principles.
Just for that one week, I determined to double
the amount of enthusiasm that I had been putting
into my selling, and into my life. The second
week, I carried my card on Order
self-organization. And so on each week. After
I completed the first thirteen weeks, and started
all over again with my first subjectEnthusiasmI
knew I was getting a better hold on myself. I
began to feel an inward power that I had never
known before. Each week, I gained a clearer
understanding of my subject. It got down deeper
inside of me. My business became more
interesting. It became exciting! At the end of
one year, I had completed four courses. I found
myself doing things naturally, and unconsciously,
that I wouldnt have attempted a year before.
Although I fell far short of mastering any of
these principles, I found this simple plan a
truly magic formula. Without it, I doubt whether
I could have maintained my enthusiasm . . . and I
believe if a man can maintain enthusiasm long
enough, it will produce anything!
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Frank McKinneyRock and Roll Real Estate
DeveloperMake it Big! 49 Rules for Building a
Life of Extreme Success
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This simple planning processsetting aside one
weekend a year to create a new personal vision
statement, and then taking a couple of hours each
Saturday to establish the goals that will help me
turn that vision into realityhas been the
bedrock underlying my success for the past 10
years. Once I started doing this, I found a
marked change in my life and in my results.
Sure, I was accomplishing more, since I was
taking the time to plan my week. But more than
that, I was linking my weekly goals to the vision
of who I wanted to be. A personal vision and
mission statement is the agreement you make with
yourself that this is who you want to be, how you
want to act, what you will and wont do, and how
you want to appear in the world. Its also a
living, breathing document that will change over
the years. I know there are some people who like
to create 5- and 10-year plans for their lives,
but Im not one of them. Sure, I can have a sense
of who I want to be 10 years from now, but I have
found that redoing my vision every year keeps it
fresh. It allows me to take into account the
progress I have or havent made and set my
direction based on what I see as my next step.
After all, I have the big picture of my highest
calling that pulls me toward my ultimate future
much more strongly than a 5- or 10-year plan.
Having a mission or vision statement for your
business is the first step. Tying it to your
goals is the next. Do your quarterly or yearly
goals have anything to do with your mission?
The last step is to make sure your daily
efforts represent the goals youve set and the
vision youve created. When your business spends
its days pursuing goals based on your corporate
vision, your customers as well as the business
community will see you as having integrity. And
isnt that the kind of reputation you want?
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Setting a vision for your business is one of the
most important tools in your entrepreneural
toolbox. A vision is what sets entrepreneurs or
intrapreneurs apart from workers who do their
nine-to-five and go home. A vision makes work not
just earning a paycheck but a means of creating
something. Take the time to create a vision for
yourself and your business. You never know what
magic you will bring about as a result. Every
Saturday afternoon , I sit down with the
previous weeks chart and a copy of my personal
vision statement. I review my vision statement
first, to remember the big picture of what I want
my life to be about this year. Then I look at the
previous weeks accomplishments and what hasnt
gotten done, and I ask, How was this week? How
did I approach things? What did I do well? What
did I do wrong? Where did I fail, not only
professionally but personally? Where did I not
live up to my personal vision statement? Then I
ask the most important questions What can I
learn from this? How can I be a better person
next time? I write the answers to all those
questions on the back of the previous weeks
chart. Once I have done my introspection,
thenand only thenam I ready to plan a new
week. Weekly introspection gives me the ability
to grasp everything thats going on around me
and, for the most part, to feel in control of the
direction of my life.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale
Carnegie

• The president of an important Wall Street bank
  once described, in a talk before one of my
  classes, a highly effective system he used for
  self-improvement. This man had little formal
  schooling yet he had become one of the most
  important financiers in America, and he confessed
  that he owed most of his success to the constant
  application of his homemade system. This is what
  he does. Ill put it in his own words as
  accurately as I can remember.
• For years I have kept an engagement book showing
  all the appointments I had during the day. My
  family never made any plans for me on Saturday
  night, for the family knew I devoted a part of
  each Saturday evening to the illuminating process
  of self-examination and review and appraisal.
  After dinner I went off by myself, opened my
  engagement book, and thought over all the
  interviews, discussions and meetings that had
  taken place during the week. I asked myself
• What mistakes did I make that time?
• What did I do that was right-and in what way
  could I have improved my performance?
• What lessons can I learn from that experience?
• I often found that this weekly review made me
  very unhappy. I was frequently astonished at my
  own blunders. Of course, as the years passed,
  these blunders became less frequent. Sometimes I
  was inclined to pat myself on the back a little
  after one of these sessions. This system of
  self-analysis, self-education, continued year
  after year, did more for me than any other one
  thing I ever attempted.
• It helped me improve my ability to make
  decisionsand it aided me enormously in all my
  contacts with people. I cannot recommend it too
  highly.

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If you want to be Successful in what you do, the
Fastest Way is to find other successful people
and Model them. Find out what they are already
doing and Do Exactly what they do You dont
have to suffer the pain of reinventing the wheel.
A RULE FOR LIFE
If you Want to Change Your Life, use Ben
Franklins and Liao Fans method !
Journal Awareness (Meditation) Merit
practice and virtue Mantra