Volume 2 - Media Mogul
After two years in London, I am able to get passage back to Philadelphia. It’s now 1727 and I’m 21 years old with a lot of experience under my belt. I have learned how to maintain my own faith as a Deist without offending others. My moral compass has led me to a direction in life where I aim to always help out my community. But I’m not a saint. I want to be successful and influential. Before I can be the latter, I must focus on the former. So what am I good at? Writing and printing. It’s time for people to know what I can do.
In Way to Wealth, I tell the tale of my experiences becoming an established printer in a city where two printers are already set up and functioning, though I would argue that “functioning” is too much of a compliment for these fools. One printer, Andrew Bradford, can’t read and the other, Samuel Keimer, is bat shit crazy. So I come in and utilize my skill in printing and networking to establish my own shop. I create a group called the Junto who’s goal is to enlighten our minds while helping each other succeed in businesses. They help me establish and expand my business. In order to compete with the others, I steal a print job from Andrew Bradford for the PA Assembly. When the politicians see the quality of my work, they give me the rest of their legal documents to print. After that I create a deal with the only paper mill in the colony where I provide them with the rags needed to make paper and they give me all the paper to sell. But that’s not all! I make my own ink and sell it to competitors and then use the profit from that sale to buy superior ink from the Dutch! Finally I write an essay highlighting the need for more paper currency in the colony. When that leads to the government passing a law to make paper currency, they hire me to print the money! The lessons I learn from these early successes help me to craft a formula for others to emulate. Some of these lessons I place in the chorus of the song so that I can truly lead people down the path to success, or the way to wealth.
I am now a young upstart printer who is making all of the right moves to become the premier businessman in Philadelphia. With my name becoming more well known, I want to make sure that I am practicing the right habits to keep my reputation squeaky clean. I believe that I have a responsibility to be a good citizen so that Philadelphia continues to flourish. Besides, I’ve always been driven to improve myself by overcoming the bad habits that may hurt me in the future. In Virtue, I highlight the importance of following a set of values that will not only ensure I behave properly but also keep me on the right trajectory. Thus I secure my continued success.
As I become more aware of my vices, I realize that I have developed a potentially disruptive habit of consorting with women with questionable reputations. I realized it was time for me to settle down and focus all of my energies on my business and maybe starting a family. The perfect woman for me is Ms. Deborah Reed who I have been friends with since my first arrival in Philadelphia. In Deb, I introduce my relationship with her and give her a chance to highlight her own role in keeping me on my ambitious course. Plus, she would’ve been really pissed at me if I only told my side of the story...
Now that I have established the foundation for my success (i.e. a family and a business), I begin to think of ways to expand my influence and my profits. In 1728, I realize that a local newspaper would generate both for me. In Neighborhood Newspaper, I survey the competition and realize that the only Philly paper, the American Weekly Mercury, is a trash publication printed by my rival, Andrew Bradford. After going to my Junto to pitch them on investing, I have to overcome a betrayal from one of the members who sets up his own paper with Samuel Keimer and call it the Pennsylvania Gazette. Undeterred, I run the Gazette into the ground by writing humorous essays for the Mercury, which increases the latter’s readership while reducing the readership of the former. I then swoop in and buy the Pennsylvania Gazette. I establish my paper as a humorous and satirical news source that will both inform and entertain the masses. I also establish the principles of what the media is responsible for; specifically, to check the power of the government by keeping the citizens informed of everything. With my formula of education and entertainment for the paper, it becomes the leading newspaper in Philadelphia and the other colonies in only 2 years! I’m 24 years old and I’m killing it.
After a couple years, my printing business has continued to expand as well. With that consistent success, I look for new opportunities to make more money and more influence. In 1731, I decide I want to write a book that will sell consistently. Thus I decide to begin printing a farmer’s almanac which provides a calendar for the upcoming year as well as other information. I used to print one by a man named Titan Leeds, but then moved his publication over to Andrew Bradford. I decided to write my own as a satirical character, Poor Richard. Each publication would begin with an essay by the poor farmer who always was complaining about a nagging wife. I also created a stir by picking a fight with Titan Leeds, who had left me, and through the course of the first five years, we would spar in our editions, which generated more interest. My Poor Richard character became an iconic figure in early colonial America but the biggest impact of the book came from the different sayings which I placed in the margins of the text. These were sayings passed down from farmer to farmer that highlighted rules of living. But because I printed them in my book, people just assumed I invented the sayings. Because of the success of my book - which sold 10,000 copies a year for 25 years - I had established a whole media empire. Also, because people didn’t care to think about whether I made up the sayings, I am credited for them and became the most quoted English speaker in world history outside of William Shakespeare… not bad company!