How Did Franklin Do It?
Masters are made. Great painters like DaVinci and Raphael didn't hop out of the womb ready to
drop our jaws with talent. They had models. They learned from painters doing the kind of work
that they wanted to do.
Ben Franklin, held by most as the greatest writer in colonial America, didn't start as Ben
Franklin the mighty. He started as a student in need of a teacher. He stayed up nights and
poured over issues of the Spectator, trying to imitate its style.
Frank Lloyd Wright had Louis Sullivan and Beethoven had Mozart. No matter who you find, and
no matter what they do, everyone needs a model. So the question is, who is yours?
If you want to be successful in something, imitate Franklin, copy Wright: get a model. Find
someone who is doing what you want to do and figure out how they did it. Dissect their
methods, pulling apart their innards like a biology student with a frog.
In time, when the fundamentals are established, you'll shed the surface imitations and find
your own way. Until then, copy the best.
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