• Don’t die: Goldman survived 150 years, including depressions and crises and scandals and potential takeovers. Many once thriving firms did not (Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Solomon Brothers, Long Term Capital Management). It came close a few times though…

• The top surprise: perhaps the 3 most crucial heads of the firm all took multiple years, even a decade, to gain real recognition:
• Sidney Weinberg: started as a janitor and mail clerk in his teens, eventually became a low level commercial paper salesman for many years before eventually rising up and eventually leading the firm for 3 decades
• John Whitehead: “I was only serving time, not learning much, in my first years at Goldman.” and “I’d been at GS for 8 years and no one had even mentioned me being a partner”
• Lloyd Blankfein: barely avoided layoffs in his second year; when he eventually was given a major business to run years into his tenure within a few weeks they rescinded the leadership role (though he eventually earned it back)

• It was (at one point) generally on the side of the underdogs. It worked with entertainment and technology and airline companies because the top investment banks wanted to work mainly with railroads and manufacturing companies. When hostile takeovers became much more permissible in the 1980s, it was the only major bank that refused to support companies trying to do the takeovers (only working with those trying to avoid or navigate being acquired) - this led to gain great trust with smaller firms that eventually became leading ones. 

• Recruiting was tremendously prioritized: Partners spent a lot of time recruiting, not just junior folks. In one year a partner interviewed 900 candidates from 35 schools for his department and selected just 23. There were very high standards to get in, and lots of training (both formal and informal) once you were in. 

• And this: Said an employee of Goldman Sachs in the early 90s: “Why so intensely engaged, so early in the morning every day? Because that’s what we truly wanted to do, and where we wanted to be. And that’s the way it was all the time for everybody at Goldman Sachs. At Morgan Stanley where I also worked for awhile, people saw their work as personally defining - it was what they could do and did do. But at Goldman Sachs it was much more. It was life.”

A few other excerpts from the book:

• Day after day Hank Paulson (CEO in early 2000's) took as his first priority completing whatever loomed as the one most difficult or unpleasant task on his to do list
• It was the decision of Paulson alone at the top not to combine Goldman Sachs with JP Morgan
• More than any Wall Street firm, the partners at GS turned up for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs, and the people who left were still kept as close key members
• One business opens up opportunities for additional business lines. Happened time and time again for GS and was critical for its growth into the firm it became. 
  • Commercial paper ->
  • Investment Banking ->
  • Block Trading / Market Making ->
  • Arbitrage ->
  • FX/Commodities ->
  • Proprietary Trading ->
  • Asset Management 
• John Whitehead (one of the most crucial leaders of the firm who turned it to top tier investment bank): “we had no big and bad ideas…we knew it would take a generation to complete the change of our position. Doing thousands of little things day after day, inching along as consistently as you can in the right direction as best you can tell…as we made changes almost continuously we had many many failures."

In case you're rusty on who Curry is: one minute of him leading the US to 2024 Olympic Good Medal with four 3's to close out the finals game

1. Get the fundamentals really really consistently right. At 15, when he changed his shooting form, he spent roughly three months taking shots only from inside the paint. I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything close to this - 100 days in a row only shooting from a few feet from the basket for hours each day.

2. Details matter. Curry emphasizes getting the tiny details right. For example, when his shot hit an off spell, he realized he was putting slightly too much weight on his pinky toe which subtly affected his whole shooting motion.

(Reminiscent of 10 time coaching legend John Wooden: “I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might be commonly overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don’t understand, but they aren’t. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business, and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions. The first thing I would show our players at our first meeting was how to take a little extra time putting on their shoes and socks properly…you must not permit your socks to have wrinkles around the little toe, or around the heels. Then hold the sock up while you put the shoe on. You tighten it up snugly by each eyelet. Then you tie it. And then you double-tie it so it won’t come undone”)

3. Daily Discipline. Curry says a key to his success has been “getting started before everyone else’s day begins”. And on how locked in you have to be all season to win a championship: “you cannot afford to let go of a regular-season game in December.”Excellence is not something you turn on only when the stakes feel obvious - Curry is great year after year because he’s committed day after day, game after game.

4. Confidence can be built. Curry remembers being too afraid to try out for varsity as a sophomore in high school, and promising himself he would not betray himself like that again. He still gets butterflies before games (“every game - preseason, regular season, Game 7”), but works through it.

5. Have fun!  “Joy has stayed with me as the guiding light and motivation; but only because I’ve safeguarded it”, Curry writes as he ends the book. When you watch Curry you see him having more fun than almost anyone else. Curry emphasized multiple times in the book that this doesn’t just happen, but prioritizing it has been a key driver to his success. 

On resilience: “when people reach out for career advice  deliver the words that guided my own career: 'Suck it up…' My advice to people during difficult times is just do your job and show they were wrong and act like you’re unperturbed by it even though you are perturbed by it." Examples of slights and challenges Blankfein had to deal with in his 25 years at Goldman before becoming CEO:

• Rejected by Goldman; joined separate company that had just been acquired by Goldman
• In his first few years: “Was at the bottom of the food chain in many ways (acquisition not Goldman, commodities not equities or fixed income, salesmen not trader). Not part of most meetings where real info was shared, meant didn’t have much to add. Often I didn’t have anything to do and was told to hold a phone to my ear to look busy. 100 of 300 laid off as business wasn’t growing, was told they were thinking about firing him but didn’t.”
• A colleague nicknamed him “overhead”
• Struggled to get another colleague to return his calls, needed to go to his boss eventually to help get his calls returned - had to deal with multiple such “stiff arms”
• One boss only gave him one complement ever:“well, that’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard”
• In his first major title bump, he was made head of a team then the offer was rescinded a few weeks later after some members of the team bristled at it. 
• When added to major firm committee, was done so at first in unprecedented approach as listener only, and invited to only every other meeting. 
  
• Was required to briefly move countries for work when he and his family would have preferred to stay. 
• Received negative 360 feedback from his colleagues in many performance reviews 

Advice on Career Navigation & Finance

• Stay put [at one company] rather than starting fresh somewhere where the people above you won’t have loyalty to you and those below you will resent you. 
• in moments of org chart ambiguity, try simply acting like you’re in charge. If people listen, fine. If they don’t, just shrug and move on. People usually respond to demonstrations of leadership more than to titles.
• Risk management matters more than prediction. You are not in the forecasting business, you are in the contingency planning business
• The best traders are not right more than they are wrong. They correct and adjust more quickly than others

Managing Goldman during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

• No one alive on Wall Street had ever experienced anything as calamitous and dramatic as the global financial crisis of 2008. Almost 2 decades later, we are living in  the world that the crisis made: an era of intense polarization, distrust of institutions and authority, rising inequality, class conflict, populous movements, and authoritarian government
• Core problem many banks had done: borrowed too much (leverage 33:1), borrowed too short term (relying heavily on repo loans), and invested too much of what it borrowed into speculative mortgage securities (that were now ~illiquid untouchable toxic assets).
• On managing during a crisis: “I’m like a flight attendant during turbulence - smile like you’re enjoying yourself. If you look afraid, the passengers will freak out”
• Should you find yourself faced with monumental judgments at a critical time, you might wish you were somewhere else, and someone better suited was in your place. Well guess what? they’re not coming, but you are there. And who knows if someone else would be better anyway
• someone from his team said they didn’t think they could do this anymore during the financial crisis. “For goodness sakes, you’re getting out of Mercedes to go to the ny fed, you’re not getting out of a Higgins boat in Omaha beach, get a grip.”
• I told people that their reputations for the rest of their careers would be established by how they handled this moment. And not just your reputation with others, your reputation with yourself. Your own sense of confidence will come from how you perform under the kind of pressure we’re facing. When you look back at your career, you’re going to think most about what kind of difference you made in challenging times like those were in now, not the good times.
• "A crisis is the precondition for a fantastic display of resilience and character. Congratulations." 

Miscellaneous 

• Do what you have a passion for (left tax law after 4 years practicing; his wife cried and his parents questioned the move). “Some colleagues in tax, dreaded getting monthly new packets of tax rulings; others waited eagerly for it…was looking at a life that would be comfortable, boring, and to me not that meaningful... I just thought “I can’t aspire to this, it looks deadly”.
• to this day, it’s hard to remember where I’ve been cause I saw hotels offices and taxis which looked more or less the same everywhere we went
• Public speaking: “When you’re swimming, it doesn’t matter whether the water is 6 feet or 600. It shouldn’t matter if you’re speaking to 6, 60, or 600. It’s the same stroke”
• Some people mistake stubbornness for character
• From public housing in Brooklyn attending public school that were failed to making it to the top of perhaps the most prestigious firm in finance. Shared a bedroom with his sister then his grandma. “As Gd is my witness, I will never share a bedroom again, unless it’s with someone I want to share a bedroom with. Escaping the neighborhood was my primary objective in life”
•  

Visualize a specific employee walking into your office and quitting without warning. Your immediate, visceral gut reaction tells you exactly what kind of "player" they are:

• C-Players (Relief): If your internal reaction is a secret sense of relief or a feeling that "the problem solved itself," they are a C-player.

• B-Players (Annoyance): If you feel annoyed because you know you’ll have to spend time and energy finding a replacement, but you aren't devastated, they are a B-player.

• A-Players (Panic): If your heart sinks and you feel a sense of panic or a desperate need to keep them at all costs, they are an A-player. Jacobs argues you should "overpay" these people because their ROI is exponential.

Jacobs on one of his secrets to success: "Execs don't learn enough from their employees. I ask my employees two questions and it has a huge impact on how I lead: 

1. What's your best idea for this company?
2. What's the stupidest thing this company does?"

"Get the long term trend right. What's the top long term trend of the last million years? Humans make tools."

"You have to rearrange your brain...Business is problems, it is solving problems again and again so you have to get your mindset into a place to like having and solving problems, and you have to find ways to handle the stress [Jacobs meditates twice a day]."

“Go all in. Go deep on a project and do the best work you’ve ever done. Put your whole heart and soul into a project. You have it in you to create something fantastic and really achieve something. It’s a critical moment in your life, when you understand that it’s up to you. You can diddle daddle through life and just kind of sleepwalk, or you can have big dreams and find your passion and go all in.”

"We transformed the company in very fundamental ways 4 times."

1. Evolve ABP from simple French bakery to a chain of bakery cafes. Re-invented into sandwiches
2. New paradigm: fast casual. ABP was becoming pedestrianized. Took form as we created Panera bread.
3. Decision to bet everything on Panera brand, told ourselves we couldn’t do everything. And we sold off everything else including ABP.
4. Reinvented Panera completely. When we had more than $2,000 stores, and feeding more than 1 in 30 Americans every week. Hard truth was we were losing competitive advantage. Changed how we make and deliver food. And taking it further to meet market’s desire for crave able wellness. 

The key insight that sparked Panera:

"Customers were beginning to reject mass market. Coke/Pepsi for Snapple Iced Tea, grocery store coffee for speciality coffee beans, Budweiser for craft beer. A desire for something for special, artisanal, and unique and products made the old fashioned way. It was happening in beer and beverages and coffee and we realized it was about to happen for food. People wanted to feel better about their quick dining experiences. We wanted to make people feel special again."

What Panera is about:

• Built on artisan bread: "Bread is our passion, soul, & expertise”. We built fresh dough instead of using frozen, and we spent $75,000 per store for the best bread ovens. Others just couldn’t copy it at all or easily."
• "We began to sketch out a cafe that would be built on relationships. That filled a bit of your soul as well as your stomach. A cafe that was an oasis from the rush of everyday life...'Warmth' is what I felt when I walked into the store."
• "There is a need in our culture for a third space. We had 100 or more seats in our cafes so could offer a true gathering space infused with positive and welcoming energy. For veterans of the food industry, where tables/seating were intentionally designed to be slightly uncomfortable to encourage turnover, inviting customers to linger was heresy. But we had plenty of excess capacity outside of meal time and we saw opportunity to build sales during these hours, becoming a venue to meet, linger, read, study, wait, conduct interviews, gossip with friends, write the great American novel, our just catch a breath."

And a few more quotes that struck me from the book:

• "It’s a cliche to ask “what business are you really in?”. But I’m amazed by how many restaurants owners and operators think they’re in the food business. They’re not. They’re in the experience business. And food is only part of that equation."
• “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s telling myself the truth."
• The flip side: “For every great quarter, there are dozens of family dinners missed. For every breakthrough innovation, there’s a personal tragedy that you just swallow while you keep showing up to work every day. For every happy customer, there’s a disappointed spouse at home…You will need endurance and there will be many dark nights of the soul."
• "At the height of Panera’s success, we had thousands if bakery cafes. But what we really had was one bakery cafe done correctly, replicated thousands of times."
• "When others are thinking just about today, I’m thinking 3-5 years in the future. The time to worry about a heart attack is not when you’re in the ambulance in the way to the hospital...We transformed the company in very fundamental ways 4 times. Companies’ systems, processes, and people are often perfectly set up to deliver what mattered yesterday. To survive and thrive in our fast changing world, you must keep transforming, never sitting back in what worked yesterday but always successfully reaching for what will matter tomorrow."

The Lead-Up

In the early 1900s, millions of Americans left farms to take higher paying jobs in metropolitan areas. The banking system was very fragmented, undercapitalized, and struggling as the 19th century agricultural economy withered. As cities grew, the banking system became ever more imbalanced and precarious.

In 1919, GM struck a blow against the American taboo on taking personal loans by selling loans for buying cars. Soon after, Sears offered installment plans for expensive appliances like dishwashers. Wall Street then went one step further and started offering stock on credit. Americans stared sometimes buying stocks paying 80-90% in credit.

New York’s population swelled. In the 1920s New York had become a fundamentally different place than other American cities. By 1929 NYC had ~2,500 buildings of 10 stories or more (and The Empire State Building, Sears Tower, and Rockefeller Center were all in development). Chicago was in second with ~450. Of the ~200 Americans who reported personal incomes of more than 1 million dollars at the time, half were New Yorkers.

The Bubble

By the peak in 1929, the stock market had experienced nearly 7 years of uninterrupted growth, and in the last year doubled what it was in 1928. Then came October 1929, one of the worst month’s in stock market history and the start of an 80% fall over the next 2 years. “I doubt if anyone will ever disclose the specific thing that produced the debacle. It seemed to me that the time came when a sufficient number of people believed their hour to sell had come. Their actions started a wave of fear and everybody tried to sell at once. The machinery of the brokerage houses could not stand the strain, and that added to the panic that ensued.”

A well-known economist made a pessimistic quote about the market, a major English company was on the verge of collapse, and stocks fell as they sometimes do. Then in one week market went down 8%, leading to brokers issuing margin calls to customers. Investors short on cash watched as brokers sold off their positions to recover debts. Actions triggered yet more margin calls and more liquidation. The New York Stock Exchange was not equipped to handle the volume of activity, leading to even more panic and selling. The market dropped 33% over one month.

The momentum for stock market recovery was never more than episodic in the early 1930s. Every market rally eventually reversed course. Some in hours, some in days, some in months. There was no singular moment of high stakes drama, the air simply leaked out of the balloon day after day after day. Stocks ended 1930 down by 1/3 for the year. Then fell by 1/2 the following year. The collapse was not a moment. It was a relentless unraveling. The hope that a new bull market was imminent vanished.

The Aftermath

Major reduction in equity meant little equity to cover great quantities of debt, eviscerating the credit markets. Throughout 1930, small banks throughout the country began to fail. Americans didn’t trust banks anymore. Money was pulled out of banks and stored under mattresses. There was soon mass unemployment, chanty towns, and bread lines. The Great Depression had started.

By 1931, unemployment had nearly tripled and one quarter of American factory workers had lost their jobs. More than 1300 banks failed (mostly in small towns and rural areas). Bank failures were averaging 60 a month, then jumped to 254 one month in November, then 344 the next in December (on one single day 43 banks failed).

Quite surprisingly to me (sorry to my 11th grade history teacher who I know taught me this once…), Hoover most likely did not lose the 1932 election to FDR due to his handling of the economy. Around the election economic turmoil had quieted down, Dow had increased, and 2/3 of Americans polled at the time felt the Great Depression was over and businesses were recovering. Hoover lost because of prohibition - while FDR was against it, Hoover refused to run against it even though 83% of the country was against it by that point. Democrats/FDR agenda was to showcase and put forth the alternative he offered to the Republicans’ hand off approach to business.

New laws in the early 1930s: FDIC insurance for $2500, SEC established, separation of commercial and investment banking.

Miscellaneous Quotes

• “At the time of the crash, many people and many banks could be knocked over by a feather.”
• “Hoover was considering whether to sign the Smoot Hawley tariff bill, which had been inspired by his own campaign promises to help ailing farmers. The bill would raise tariffs on imported goods to an average of nearly 60%. More than 1,000 economists signed a letter condemning it. Hoover had major reservations about the bill, describing it as “vicious” “extortionate” and “obnoxious”. But In the end it came down to the heartland vs Wall Street, and Hoover knew which side he owed his political debts to. He signed the bill into law on June 17th, 1930. Trade between the US and the rest of the world fell by 60% within a year.”
• “In the less affluent areas of big cities and the vast areas beyond metropolitan centers, daily life was unraveling to a degree that wasn’t yet visible or comprehensible to either Wall Street or Washington.”
• “It’s at this point that the story shift. The Great Depression is rolling on, Hoover continues to flail, and FDR is now becoming a prominent replacement candidate. The country is hungry for a hero, and for villains too.”
• There was a push being made by one of the richest men in the world to cut the 5.5 day work week (half day Saturday, which had gone down by 6) down to 5. The pitch was it would improve the economy by leading to more tires and cars and gas, more camping and fishing gear, sports goods, more hotel spending, more shopping, more activity.
• Future famous composer/playwright Gershwin was deciding between two choices: “I can stay in New York and take a pretty tempting offer to write a show I’ve been offered, or toss that up (and the good financial deal that comes with it) and follow a pretty strong urge I have to go to Paris and study theory and orchestration and work out a new idea of mine.” Response from his friend: “My guess is that unless you follow your real desire, you stand a pretty good chance of writing a pretty bad show”. Gershwin took that advice and went abroad, where he wrote “An American in Paris”.
• Congressman Carter Glass in 1902 when he’d asked to be on foreign committees but got put on banking instead: “I don’t know anything about banking, but I guess I can learn.” Read everything he could, and eventually became the top banking expert in all of Congress and was instrumental in creation of the Federal Reserve and the major financial legislation “The Glass-Steagall Act”.

Breaking the mold: Ardern’s entire career became a counter-example to many stereotypes we have about politicians:

• "I asked students to close their eyes and imagine a politician and then tell me what they saw. The answers were always the same: male, old, gray. Then I would turn to what they heard and tone of voice - the words would come quickly: “confident! Angry, aggressive.” I would repeat this exercise in multiple classrooms up and down the country - the answers were always the same."

Advice from Queen Elizabeth: when Ardern asked her for advice on raising children while leading a country:

• “You just get on with it”

Shout out to trout fishing:

• “In the end, I think 3 things helped mom keep going: her faith, her community, and trout fishing”

Guiding advice from her dad, a police officer, after a situation when she thought he would have used force but he de-escalated peacefully:

• “My words will always be the greatest tool I have”

The core passage of the book: the traits we often label as flaws can be our greatest strengths:

• "Here is what I would say to everyone who is not sure they fit: 'If you have imposter syndrome or question yourself, channel that - it will help you. You will read more, seek out advice, and humble yourself to situations that require humility to be conquered. If you over think everything, if you can imagine the worst case scenario, channel that too. It will mean you are ready when the most challenging days arrive. And if you are thin skinned and sensitive, that is not weakness. It’s empathy. In fact all the traits that you believe are your flaws will come to be your strengths. The things you thought will cripple you, will in fact make you stronger, make you better. They will give you a different kind of power, and make you a leader that this world might just need. That’s what I would tell them, and I suppose, in sharing my story, that’s what I’m telling you.'"

1) Improved his luck surface area. ("The most important decision a poker player makes is what table they sit at; The number one rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are”). The below are focused on geography, but Franklin made similar pivots beyond where to live:

• If Franklin had not moved from Boston to Philly at 17 we would never heard of him (got him away from a bad situation and to a smaller city with more opportunities for him to make contributions).
• If Franklin had not moved from Philly to London at 50, he would not have been an impactful statesmen (opportunity had dried up for him in Philly, a state faction started turning against him, and he looked at pivots whether to London or moving out west to help start a new colony).
• If Franklin had not left London to hop between US and France in his late 60s, the US might not have secured needed support from France to win the war (all these moves were extremely difficult and emotional decisions; on his last day in London, per friend, “he grew very emotional. The tears in his eyes made it impossible for him to read” ).

2) Started small. A couple key examples Franklin was a part of:

• Started his public service career as a clerk when a position opened up; eventually became a Founding Father
• America's first library started as dozen people (including Franklin) in a small social club sharing books
• University of Pennsylvania started as an academy
• Franklin's passion for electricity yielded no results for many years
• Didn’t rush funding requests with France as America's lead diplomat - Franklin waited for the right time when power on the battlefield led to improved power at the bargaining table (this was a very big deal as US might not have won the war without French funding / support!)

3) Overcame obstacle after obstacle: I had imagined a life with this many accomplishments would be one triumph after another, but I was surprised how many setbacks Franklin had. Here’s a list of some adversities Franklin successfully overcame:

• His older brother managed the family store Franklin worked at and bullied/hit Franklin, leading Franklin to run away from Boston to establish a new life in Philadelphia at 17.
• After decades of contributions to Philadelphia, Franklin ran for a public service position in in the city and came in 13th out of 14th place.
• While representing the US in London during the build-up to the American Revolution, Franklin faced major threats on both sides of the Atlantic (a mob tried to burn down his house in Philly, while he faced a British parliament that accused him for hours and almost sent him to jail).
• Some health issues in his later life (while making titanic contributions to the early US) including having gout, kidney stones, and a twice-dislocated shoulder.

4) Set high standards for himself. A few of many examples:

• In his 20s, Franklin was told he was too argumentative. In response, Franklin set a 3-point standard for himself when he disagreed with someone: 1) acknowledge an aspect of their opinion he agreed with; 2) caveat that he was just sharing his opinion and could be wrong; and 3) share his disagreement in the form of a question. This approach made a major difference in Franklin's ability to collaborate effectively with people, a critical component of his success.
• Franklin documented a set of key standards for himself (moderation, humility, frugality, etc.) and then focused on a different one each week to turn them into habits over time.

5) Hard Working & Detail-Oriented. Franklin worked hard, consistently, and granularly.

• As a Printer in his 20s and 30s, people passing Franklin's printing shop would see him working late into the evening
• Pushed himself to make daily, detailed, practical progress 
• Wrote out plans in incredible detail, minutiae, footnotes (such as the charter for the University of Pennsylvania and procedures for the US Post Office)
• Made slight but impactful refinements to America’s founding documents (such as suggesting the famous phrase “self-evident” be used instead of Thomas Jefferson’s original “sacred and undeniable”)

6) Emotional discipline. One of Franklin's most marked characteristics (one he shared with George Washington and which differentiated him from many others like John Adams) was an extremely high level of emotional self control. A few examples:

• When called before Parliament in London, Franklin felt avoiding speaking back to Parliament members would improve his chances of avoiding jail - he was spoken poorly of repeatedly but maintained his composure (“I kept my countenance as immovable as if my desires had been made of wood”)
• To John Adams, Franklin wrote a very adversarial letter when he was upset, but never sent it, as it gave him the ability to express his frustration without making an enemy.

7) Continually earned an enhanced reputation, including:

• Becoming a leading printer in Philly led to him join a social club that helped him make major contributions to the city (university, library, fire insurance, widow insurance)
• Franklin's scientific achievements played an enormous role in his success as a statesmen - from US to London to France he had more doors open to him and was respectfully listened to
• In London, Franklin eventually stood up against British taxes on the colonies - doing so made him one of the most popular and respected Americans, positioning him for success as a diplomat and founding father

8) Avoided major mistakes (though made some medium ones...). Here are things that weren't part of his life - sounds not too difficult but at least one of these were a part of the lives of other founding fathers, past presidents, and geniuses like Newton and Mozart

• didn’t overspend or speculate away his money (his eventual financial success gave him independence and ability to contribute to public service later in his life)
• didn’t have an affair
• didn't have a duel
• generally avoided making personal enemies

9) Teamwork! Almost all accomplishments were with other people where he was just a part:

1. Co-founding America's first public library, the University of Pennsylvania, and insurance for widows
2. Engaging with the French to secure critical funding and support
3. Playing a key role in the Constitution successfully passing: “Attended the convention punctually and talked about it highly, helping to make it real. Chose to nominate Washington to chairman, when he was the only person who could have been thought of as a competitor ...Franklin's closing speech helped convince Constitutional delegates to vote for the Constitution, was called by some historians the most impressive moment of his life."

10) Franklin brought a sense of fun, joy, and curiosity which helped connect him with others and energize him over a long life of contributions:

• Franklin followed his interests, most notably in lightning and science which led to his discovery of electricity
• Franklin consistently had a good sense of humor, told stories, and generally was enjoyable to be around and work with. Quote from a Franklin contemporary: "I never saw a man who was in every respect so amiable in all ways"