Peanut Butter Principles

A debut advice book filled with valuable lifelong principles for children, from motivational speaker and successful CEO Franklin.

In five sections (The Super Self, Making Wishes Come True, The School of Life, Relationships, Good Choices) and a year’s worth of instruction, this book should serve parents well as a guide to teaching their kids the habits crucial to success—which in the author’s view is like tasty, nutritious peanut butter enriched with lessons intended to “stick with you your entire life, and if you allow them, they will help to build the character necessary to lead others.” Much of the life-coaching advice here is based on Franklin’s own experience, starting with his teen years when he quickly parlayed a low-paying job into a managerial position), while other lessons are informed by his Christian faith or absorbed from other people—Bill Cosby, GE CEO Jack Welch, Harold Kushner, Winston Churchill, singer John Michael Montgomery, etc. Overall, the advice seems practical, even if it’s nothing new. There’s no room for self-pity here: “You can only climb out of that dark place when you allow yourself to see the light and find the conviction in your heart to reach for it.” While some of the glib observations—“kids are naturally selfish” and “our culture promotes instant gratification”—reflect personal prejudice rather than objective verification, the idea that parents need to thoughtfully inculcate good habits is a worthy one; still, Franklin says, don’t “flood a child’s mind with all this insight at once.” Some of the reminders—that “[a]ll you have is time” so invest rather than spend time, and that there is an important distinction between a decision and a commitment—should benefit both generations. All the easily digestible, straightforward advice underscores his belief that “Education and growth have no end if you move through life with both your eyes and your mind wide open.”

A pastiche of tried-and-true aphorisms best swallowed in small bits.