Title: The Way to Wealth and Other Writings on Finance
 
Author: Benjamin Franklin

Backstory:
Required reading for corporate chieftains, entrepreneurs, and historians alike. When Arthur Levitt was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he once handed out more than 500 copies to participants of a town hall meeting.

Total reading time: 195 Minutes

First published:  1757, as the preface to the final edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack
Key passages:
“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

“Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright.”

“Wise men…learn by others’ harms, fools scarcely by their own.”

“If you would be wealthy…think of saving as well as getting.”

“God helps them that help themselves.”

Synopsis:
First published in 1757, The Way to Wealth is a 15-page speech made by an imaginary character named Father Abraham. In it, Abraham strings together the best-known maxims from Franklin’s widely popular Poor Richard’s Almanack. Within 40 years of its publication, The Way to Wealth had become so popular it was reprinted in 145 editions and seven languages.

Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson presents this timeless counsel in a new edition that includes copies of the original typeface alongside easier-to-read versions in modern type, as well as a number of other documents from the statesman’s life: his last will and testament—in which Franklin leaves money to be lent to young beginners in business—his plan for paper currency, and a number of personal letters to friends.

The Way to Wealth provided a life guide for everyone from farmers to aspiring businessmen, and did much to promote the Protestant work ethic in Colonial America. Franklin reminds readers that the key to wealth lies as much in disciplined frugality and the avoidance of sloth and idleness as in one’s salary. In addition to advocating that everyone rise early and seize the day, and warning that “there will be sleeping enough in the grave,” Franklin emphasizes repeatedly that it is by taking small actions— saving a shilling, wearing an old shirt, and most important of all, avoiding debt—that big financial results are achieved.

These writings also reveal Franklin’s beliefs about civic duty and his contempt for those unwilling to help their neighbors. Of taxes, he writes, “we are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly.” It’s a testament to Franklin’s voluminous wit that the speech consists almost entirely of maxims, reeled off one after another by Father Abraham, yet it doesn’t come off as list-like. Each saying bursts with ageless wisdom. By making them pithy, Franklin hoped they might remain lodged in the heads of early Americans.