Page 39 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

15 MANY A MICKLE

Franklin was no fan of finery. He believed in sticking to the basics as
he made clear when observing that ‘Many a one, for the sake of finery
on the back, have gone with a hungry belly, and half starved their
families’.

‘Many a mickle makes a muckle’, as my Granny always said. There again,
Gran also used to tell me that witches used empty eggshells as boats in
order to sink sailors’ ships, so I don’t think she’s going to be writing a lot
of business self-help books any time soon.

DEFINING IDEA…
From little acorns mighty oaks do grow.
~ PROVERB

The idea that little things add up is certainly not new, and Benjamin
Franklin really warmed to his task when it came to warning about the
accumulating costs of small expenses. ‘You may think perhaps that a little
tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little
finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no great Matter; but
remember what Poor Richard says, many a little makes a mickle, and
farther, beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.’ The
more I think about it the more I notice that Grandma Shipside and
Benjamin share a remarkable number of common interests (let alone
vocabulary).

History hasn’t been kind to the frugal over the last half century or so.
Those brought up in wartime or with rationing need no telling about the
need for tightening belts. Those of us brought up since then have tended to
rebel against the attitudes of earlier generations, swapped ‘frugal’ for
‘penny-pinching’ and enjoyed almost unfettered spending—but with that
freedom has come a general loss of awareness of the cost of small things.
The ‘price of a pint’ (of milk) test is a celebrated way of testing just how
out of touch celebrities are, but you don’t have to be a rock star to fail the