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Marcia Dawood
a book bubble about
Do Good While Doing Well
Business & Investing
Author Insight
The OG entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship has been around longer than most people think. Taking an idea that could solve a big problem and making it a reality is one of the biggest things angel investors look for in a founder. What big problem have you seen solved recently? This excerpt dates back centuries but tells an amazing story.
Book Excerpt
Do Good While Doing Well
“Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals, the lightning rod, and a musical instrument called the glass armonica. (Mozart composed a piece for it.) He proved that lightning is electricity and coined the terms “electrician,” “battery,” “conductor,” “positive/negative charge,” and “electric shock.” He founded Pennsylvania’s first library and fire department and co-founded its first hospital and college. (All remain open.) He perfected the odometer and the rocking chair. He designed a better catheter and a more efficient stove. He drew the first American political cartoon: A sliced-up snake captioned ‘Join, or Die.’ He explained the northern lights and mapped the Gulf Stream. He also invented swim fins.”
Ben Franklin was the kind of entrepreneur angels look for: someone taking a big problem and figuring out a solution. But he was not in it for the money or the fame. In fact, Ben Franklin believed everything he invented should be shared among everyone. Meyer informs us in his book, “While the first federal patent act was not passed until 1790, under colonial law, Franklin could have applied for the exclusive commercial use of his many inventions.” But he did not. This is just one of the ways Ben Franklin believed in paying it forward. However, what many people don’t know is that he was also one of the country’s original angel investors. In his will, Ben Franklin left £1,000 to both the city of Boston, his birthplace, and the city of Philadelphia, where he spent much of his adult life. This money, however, was not just a gift. He attached a loan plan to the money so that young skilled workers could start businesses. The loans would then be paid back over ten years with a below-market annual interest rate of 5 percent. Franklin stipulated that this should continue for two hundred years after his death. His idea was that the interest from the loans would compound, and by the end of the two-hundred-year period, the cities would have a windfall of cash to allow them to make civic improvements.
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