Julie -- Have you read...

For me, two of them would definitely be Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin.

I'd like to know what motivated them, and get their advice on their success in different fields!

Both of them were multi-talented....

Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, engineer, and scientist (especially of human anatomy)....

Benjamin Franklin as a publisher and author (of Poor Richard's Almanack, written under the pseudonym Richard Saunders), scientist, inventor, and statesman (and signatory of the American Declaration of Independence)....

What motivated them to be so diverse? Was it simply curiosity?

I don't know for sure, but I'll bet it was an insatiable curiosity which may have helped to drive them to their great pursuits in various areas.... Just to see what it was like!

Here's some wisdom from Benjamin Franklin....

I remember a notable Woman, who was fully sensible of the intrinsic Value of Time. Her Husband was a Shoemaker, and an excellent Craftsman, but never minded how the Minutes passed. In vain did she inculcate to him, That Time is Money. He had too much Wit to apprehend her, and it prov'd his Ruin. When at the Alehouse among his idle Companions, if one remark'd that the Clock struck Eleven, What is that, says he, among us all? If she sent him Word by the Boy, that it had struck Twelve; Tell her to be easy, it can never be more. If, that it had struck One, Bid her be comforted, for it can never be less.

If we lose our Money, it gives us some Concern. If we are cheated or robb'd of it, we are angry: But Money lost may be found; what we are robb'd of may be restored: The Treasure of Time once lost, can never be recovered; yet we squander it as tho' 'twere nothing worth, or we had no Use for it.

The Bell strikes One: We take no Note of Time,
But from its Loss. To give it then a Tongue
Is wise in Man. If heard aright
It is the Knell of our departed Hours;
Where are they? With the Years beyond the Flood:
It is the Signal that demands Dispatch;
How much is to be done? ------
Be wise To-day, 'tis Madness to defer;
Next day the fatal Precedent will plead;
Thus on, till Wisdom is push'd out of Life:
Procrastination is the Thief of Time,
Year after Year it steals till all are fled,
And to the Mercies of a Moment leaves
The vast Concerns of an eternal Scene.
If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That 'tis so frequent, This is stranger still.

Poor Richard's Improved Almanack, 1751

There's a lot of wisdom locked up in those words.... I've been reading through some of Benjamin Franklin's writings, and I'm amazed how many of these topics that we find in our "modern" books are right there in Benjamin Franklin's works -- in 18th century language!

Dien Rice


Read more from Benjamin Franklin here.... :)