"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin": There Will Be Sleeping Enough in the Grave

This post is part of a series in which Influencers describe the books that changed them.Follow the channel to see the full list.

In my senior year high school English class, Mrs. Marshall assigned us The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. While many of my classmates opted to read the Cliffs Notes version, I dove in and read it cover to cover (it’s a short but entertainingly dense read).

In fact, I liked it so much, I read it again during business school when I was seeking the motivation to start my first business. It was pivotal in kicking my butt into gear and getting me excited to do something big. Reading the words of someone who started with nothing and went on to create some of the most lasting institutions was incredibly inspiring and motivating to me as I was starting my career from scratch. Among the book’s many pearls of wisdom, here's what it taught me:

Lesson 1: Set daily goals

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.”

While my goals may have been a little less lofty than Franklin’s “bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection,” his method of breaking things down into smaller, attainable goals resonated with me. In his drive to embody 13 outlined virtues, he writes of creating a book with columns for each day, and marking down whenever he violated one of his values. I applied this in my life by making a long list of the goals I wanted to achieve, and starting every morning by highlighting the ones I planned to tackle that day. I still do this to this day. This shifts my focus from the often overwhelming big picture to manageable chunks that I can realistically accomplish – and feel good about.

Lesson 2: Think long-term

There will be sleeping enough in the grave.”

Franklin is known, obviously, for building and helping build great things – the Post Office, bifocals, street lighting and, you know, America. And while his day-to-day (like anyone’s) may have been caught up in the details – printing newspapers, electricity experiments, testifying before Parliament – he always kept an eye on the bigger picture, the goal of building something that would outlast his lifetime.

His words taught me that what you accomplish on a daily basis can have a much larger impact. In every task, from conceptualizing a company to recruiting to making my to-do list, I think about how what I’m doing plays into the long-term plan. Some tasks may be annoying or seem trivial or stressful at the time. But if I reframe how I think about what I’m doing, I see it as a means to an end, and how it all matters in the grand scheme of things. In my role as CEO of HotelTonight I keep coming back to this – the work we do here every day, small and big, is in pursuit of building a brand that will outlive all of us.

Lesson 3: The power of great branding

In 1732 I first published my Almanack… I endeavored to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand that I reaped considerable profit from it.”

Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee.” – Poor Richard's Almanack

Franklin’s Poor Richard's Almanack, which he writes about in his autobiography, was an early example of the power of great branding. The yearly pamphlet, published from 1732 to 1758, was a best-seller: I think of it as one of the first viral American publications. Full of wordplay and witty, quotable one-liners, it was what I call a “portable” product – something where you can explain in one sentence why someone should buy/read/use it.

I strive for that same great, portable branding in my career – from mobile apps named for exactly what they are to super-simple, extremely useful products. I admire products that you can explain in 5 words or less, like Amazon Prime, or RunKeeper, or Snapchat. A solid brand – something people will instantly get, and like, is a strong principle for any company to be founded on.

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Sam Shank founded HotelTonight (which is hiring!) in 2010. Follow him here or at @samshank.