On September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin gave a speech at the Constitutional Convention which led to the signing of the Constitution. Franklin wasn’t convinced that the document was perfect, but he also knew that maybe he was wrong and he encouraged everyone to move forward. Here’s part of what he said:
“I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.“
Later in the talk he encouraged others to do the same:
“On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the convention, who may still have objections to it, would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.“
He ultimately decided a few things:
- He didn’t fully approve it, but knew that his judgement might be poor.
- He wanted to respect the judgement of others.
- He encouraged others to approve it, even if they had some objections.
He knew that they’d never get to a point where everyone agreed on every word of the document, so he encouraged everyone to move forward to at least get it published.
As I’ve said before, it can be good to doubt yourself. My previous posts were about using self-doubt to improve your knowledge, but Franklin shows it can also be good to help push things forward. He knew that his opinions on the document could potentially be mistaken, and it was good enough that it was worth moving forward instead of just letting everyone argue about it even longer.
237 years later, he seems he got it right.
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