How to Succeed, One Amazing Story, and Five Inspiring Quotations — Chuck B Philosophy

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

- Marcus Aurelius

Michael was born in a small town in England in 1791. It was not a time or place where a child of low birth to poor parents could expect to see his situation elevated. He received little formal education and at age 14, was apprenticed to a local bookseller. For the next seven years, Michael worked in the bookshop, binding and selling books for no payment other than a roof over his head and three meals a day.

For Michael, there was one perk to his indentured position; he had access to books. Although he had little education, Michael could read, and that is what he did. He developed an interest in science, particularly chemistry and electricity. But the book that most captivated him was Issac Watts’s book The Improvement of the Mind. Michael would take this book to heart and believed that he could elevate himself despite Britain’s rigid class-based system.

After completing his apprenticeship, Michael began to attend lectures at the Royal Institution and the Royal Society. There he was mainly influenced by the lessons of Humphrey Davy, an English chemist and a bit of a self-promoter. Michael took detailed notes on Davy’s…