In many ways, Benjamin Franklin relates to many of us as students. Students or people in general are always looking for ways to essentially meet perfection. We try to organize our lives and come up with plans to follow by eliminating bad habits and creating good ones. In the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin he “conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection (Franklin, 64).” He comes up with 13 virtues that one may follow to become flawless and admits that it will be difficult and tiring.

A few virtues that I find myself trying to follow are order, frugality and industry. He explains order as “letting all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time (64).” This is where many people start their journey to “perfection.” We try to create order in our lives and follow precise schedules like Franklin who thought order “would allow [him] more time for attending to [his] project and my studies (65).” However, when he tried to follow all his virtues, he found that “order gave [him] the most trouble (68).” Even organizing his papers and things he found “difficult to acquire (68).” Though order may seem easy to follow at first, it is probably the most difficult follow through with.

For frugality, Benjamin describes it as “making no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e,. waste nothing (64).” College students are all about saving money, however, for as long as I have been a student, one of the hardest things to do is save my money. I found myself spending on things that had no use to me or only had use for that moment. Franklin believed that this was one piece to “freeing [him] from [his] remaining debt (65),” which is true. He didn’t have many issues with being frugal, but as for myself this would be the category I would often mark as one of my faults.

Lastly, industry that he expresses as “losing no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions (64).” This was the second piece he believed could “free [him] from [his] remaining debt (65).” Like Franklin, I wouldn’t mark this category as one of my greatest flaws. In the end, everyone wants to earn a living somehow and this can only be gained through working and filling in empty hours with progress.

By the end of his project, Benjamin Franklin “had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish (68).” However, he didn’t reach perfection in each virtue and found that it was difficult to be flawless. Though he couldn’t fulfill his project he was happy with how far he has gotten. He believes that one can reach perfection if “he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention (72).” You learn from Benjamin that becoming “perfect” doesn’t always lead to a happy life, if anything you’d have to eliminate happiness in order to reach perfection.

Benjamin Franklin like many of the theorists we read about came up with plans of how to be the best or gain the most knowledge, however it is difficult to follow each way perfectly. Benjamin Franklin expresses that though arriving at moral perfection is great, it cannot easily be reached. I think if anyone were to read his autobiography, they would easily be able to relate to trying to become perfect, but not succeeding.