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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hello, everybody.

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Welcome back to another episode of The Way

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the World Works.

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You know, we do a lot of, there's

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a big spread of topics we do for

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this show.

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And I love that, right?

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Because the name of it is The Way

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the World Works, and it's because we're talking

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about the way the world works, whether that's

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American history, whether that's economics, whether that's what

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I'm going to talk about today, which is

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about character and founders who exhibited good character.

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And so we talk a lot about personal

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responsibility and, and, you know, I've talked about

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how to make yourself feel more grateful and

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how that can impact, you know, your life

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and those around you.

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And I think sometimes people might wonder, why

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in the heck are we talking about that

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on a show where we just talked about

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the founding fathers last, last week?

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And it's because living in a free society,

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individualism means personal responsibility.

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It means you have to make yourself in

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a good state as an individual so that

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you are, you are ready to live in

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a society without, you know, all these government

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restrictions so that you can, you can have

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something to, I don't want to say something

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to offer to your community because I don't

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think necessarily you, you owe things to others.

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I'm sounding like Ayn Rand here, but, but

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you, you do owe, you do owe others

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mutual respect.

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You do, you know, we should be creating

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value for other people.

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And how do we do that?

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How do we learn personal responsibility?

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I think it starts with building good character.

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What does that mean?

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We all know what character means when we

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talk about storybooks, right?

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That's going to be the person who this,

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the story is about the people, the players,

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that's what they call them in plays.

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That's what Shakespeare called them.

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But that's not what we're talking about when

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we talk about building character.

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When we talk about building character, we're talking

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about building morals, building, building virtues.

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So, and it's not just like, oh, I

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should be a nicer person.

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Oh, I should do this.

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I should do that.

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It's about building self-control.

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It's about building integrity.

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Some might say civil virtue, moral independence.

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These are some things that, that come to

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mind and we'll go into those in a

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minute.

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Self-control is probably a self-explanatory, but

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the cool thing about this, this episode in

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particular is easier to tie back to, again,

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the history lessons we talk about because our

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country was actually founded by men who very

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strongly believed in the importance of building character,

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especially if they were going to be leaders

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of the first truly free country or, or

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mostly free country.

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So that's what we're going to talk about

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today.

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So at its core, you know, good, good

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character is kind of the, the essence of

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self-government.

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You need to have the ability to restrain

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your, you know, your own appetite, your impulses,

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your passions, and even, you know, your ambition

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and to, to make sure that you are

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a person people are going to want to

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live in a free society.

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You don't want somebody to see you and

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be like, this is why we need laws.

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This person right here is why I think

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we need a government, right?

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You don't want people to say that.

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So as I mentioned, self-control is a

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big one.

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I kind of already explained that that's, that's

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being able to control your, your emotions.

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We've talked about that many times, being able

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to control your, um, again, your vices, uh,

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vices is like a vice would be maybe

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eating too much junk food could be a

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vice or, you know, for, for adults, when

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you think about laws built on vices, it's

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like smoking would be a vice, right?

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It's something that isn't great, but shouldn't be

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regulated by the government, right?

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It should be regulated by you.

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You should be able to control those vices.

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And then you have integrity.

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And when I think of integrity, the first

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thing that comes to mind is keeping your

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word, doing everything you promise to do.

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And that's honestly the heart of like contract

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law, which was a lot of, um, consent,

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uh, you know, rule by consent or living

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in a community by consent.

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And it all kind of starts with that.

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Do what you promise to do.

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If you are somebody who says you're going

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to do something and doesn't do it, you're

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not going to be somebody people want to

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live in a free society with.

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They're just not.

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And you can go to the mountains and

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live by yourself, but I will tell you

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this, it's probably going to get a little

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lonely.

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I think you might get a little lonely

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after time.

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I'd be great for the first little bit,

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but after a while it's like home alone

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where it was fun for a day when

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he was left home alone.

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And then he's like, wait a second, robbers

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are after me and I'm kind of lonely.

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And then another big one is moral independence.

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And that's the courage to do what is

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right.

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Even if that means standing alone.

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One thing that I think makes our founders

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and even, you know, the courageous heroes that,

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that are mentioned in the title twins book,

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that's what makes them so extraordinary is their

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ability to say, this is morally wrong.

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I'm going to stand up to it.

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And that may mean I'm risking my reputation

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that may mean I'm going to lose all

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my friends or worse.

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That may mean that me, that might mean

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I'm going to risk my life.

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That might mean that I lose my life

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for this.

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So that, that to me is honestly one

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of the most important things, billing, being willing

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to stand on principle.

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Now my favorite founding father is John Adams

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and he was really big on character.

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And you know, it's funny.

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I don't always agree with John Adams philosophically.

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I agree with Thomas Jefferson far more.

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The reason that I relate to John Adams

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so much, the reason I love him so

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much is because he did have a good,

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strong moral character.

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For example, at a time when the founders

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like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson knew that slavery

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was incompatible with individual liberty.

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They knew it, but they couldn't give it

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up.

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They were men of their time.

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They were, they were men who understood, but

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couldn't live out what they knew was right.

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John Adams, his wife, they never owned slaves

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because they understood that that was incompatible.

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So I, I, I look at that as

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it's, that's standing on moral character.

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That's just, it's, it was an incredible thing

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to do at the time.

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And I like that we have them as

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examples.

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John Adams believed that the law should be

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kind of a last line of defense because

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if people lacked virtue, if they lacked character,

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then no piece of paper with the law

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was going to save anybody.

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It wasn't going to restrain them.

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So you had to have people who had

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some sort of moral grounding.

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Now in this day, a lot of people

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associated that with religion because that was, that

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was where they got their virtues or got

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their morals, but it doesn't have to be,

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you know, you can have this belief, you

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know, don't hurt people, don't take their stuff

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with or without that.

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The next founder I want to talk about

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is George Washington.

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And let's look, when we talk about him

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and, and character, let's think about it in

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terms of leadership.

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Now, there was one thing I'm reading a

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biography about him right now that is just

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terribly interesting.

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But one thing that I was learning about

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him is he was not a particularly well

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-educated man.

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And so for him, building character and, and

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seeking knowledge was very important because he felt

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he had something to prove.

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And that's not a bad thing.

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That's, you know, ambition in the best possible

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way, because he was taking on positions of

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leadership, you know, mostly in the military and

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then later the first president of our country.

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And so he understood that for him to

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be a truly great leader, he needed to

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be armed with the, the skills, the education,

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the knowledge to do that and the, uh,

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the routine, the discipline.

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And so he was famous for constantly wanting

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to self-improve for constantly implementing these new

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areas of self-discipline.

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He was also famously known for trying to

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instill those, uh, you know, strict disciplinary rules

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to other people, but he was also a

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general.

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So that makes sense.

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When you think of a military, you think,

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Oh, they kind of have to be disciplined.

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That's their whole thing.

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So he was very big on that.

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Sometimes I think people didn't love it so

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much because he was very strict.

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He ran his house very strictly, but it

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was because, because of that, because he wanted

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to improve himself.

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He knew discipline was a way to do

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that, a way to show you had this

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strong character.

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And so George Washington is going to become

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an amazing leader because of this.

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And also he had this, this desire for

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individual liberty above all.

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And so he did eventually become president, but

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he didn't want to be, he didn't want

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to be, he didn't want to run for

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office.

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He didn't do that, but the people asked

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him to.

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And so he did what he thought his

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country needed.

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I'm careful when I talk about that because

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I don't like that's portrayed sometime as, Oh,

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the common good.

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And I don't ever like saying the common

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good.

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Cause usually when you hear that it's lumped

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in with communism and socialism and we know

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that that's not great.

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But in this incident, he wanted to be

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a good leader for his brand new country.

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And so he stepped forward because that's what

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he thought the people needed and wanted.

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But here's the difference between common good and

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communism and this kind of common good.

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He did it voluntarily.

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And that's the, that's the key there.

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Ben Franklin was also really big on, on

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this enlightenment idea of building strong character.

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And he actually famously had these 13 virtues

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and that included temperance, that included silence, that

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included frugality.

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And it's funny when I hear the silence

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part because Ben Franklin was notoriously kind of

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loud and boisterous and kind of a, kind

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of a, um, he was the life of

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the party.

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We'll say that.

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So I'm like silence.

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Well, you were not silent all the time,

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but okay.

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And these are good things to live by,

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I guess.

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And this thing I love, I will, I

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have mixed feelings about it, but I think

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I love it.

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He used to track his daily failings in

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a journal.

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Like this is what I failed at today.

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Now we've talked about failure being great.

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Many, many episodes, especially if you're an entrepreneur.

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Do I think we need to hone in

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on failure constantly and be like, Oh, I'm

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so bad.

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I'm terrible at this.

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Blah, blah, blah.

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No.

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But I love that he did it daily

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to just be like, okay, this is where

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I fell short today.

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I'm going to try to make that better.

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And I think that is so great.

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So he did that because he believed in

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this discipline and he didn't, he didn't believe

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that the goal was being this like morally

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perfect, better than everyone, you know, kind of

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mentality.

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But he just thought, I'm going to try

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better.

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I'm going to try better tomorrow and the

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next day and the next day to be

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the best possible version of myself that I

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can be that day.

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And so Ben Franklin was real big on

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that.

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Thomas Jefferson believed that character was built through

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education and moral reasoning, which is if you've

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ever read anything about Thomas Jefferson, that is

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so just spot on for him.

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You know, Thomas Jefferson and a lot of

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the other founders believed in this concept of

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like a natural aristocracy and an intellectual aristocracy.

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And what I mean by that is that

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people who were who studied and who gained

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a sense of moral reasoning were going to

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rise to a position where they were able

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to be leaders or they were able to

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be, you know, even just philosophical leaders, they

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were able to put forth these writings that

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would help shape minds and hearts as well.

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And so that's what Thomas Jefferson did.

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And when I say education, I do not

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mean public schools.

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Those didn't really even exist at the time.

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There were some colonies of Massachusetts earlier on

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actually had compulsory schooling, but that's not what

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he means.

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He means education in the sense that we

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here at Tuttleton's believe in gaining knowledge, gaining

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practical knowledge, moral reasoning, things like that.

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And so Thomas Jefferson was just, you know,

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a bookworm.

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He was constantly reading.

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He studied Locke.

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He studied Blackstone.

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And he was trying to build his character

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through making sure that he understood these these

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kind of dense concepts at a time and

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that he could instill those to others.

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But all of these men, if you look

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at everything, it's all the sense of discipline.

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It's all the sense of I'm actually going

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to spend time to do something that I

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think is going to make me a better

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person.

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And by being a better person, however that

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may be, they all had a little bit

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of different areas.

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By doing that, I'm going to be able

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to create value for other people, which is,

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again, the staples of a free community.

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And so I love that.

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You know, we've talked about before Jordan Peterson,

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who talked about that you need to clean

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your own room before you can take on

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bigger projects or even think you can give

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input on how to change the world.

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And that's so true.

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And we have, you know, Tuttle Twins, 12

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rules boot camp based off Jordan Peterson's 12

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rules for life book, which is really good.

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I think this is so good if we're

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talking about character building and and becoming better

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people.

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So maybe as a family, maybe sit together

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at dinner.

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Maybe I don't know if you guys do

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like a family night, whatever it is you

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do, maybe think of ways that you can

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help build character.

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And you're not saying you all have to

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point out each other's moral failings, daily failings

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like Benjamin Franklin did.

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But talk about how to keep yourselves accountable,

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how to really put that discipline forth.

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Also remembering that the best form of discipline

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is going to be self-discipline.

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Because if you're constantly doing something just because

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you don't want to be punished or looked

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down on by other people, that works.

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Incentives work.

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But there is something really truly magical and

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very important that happens when you find that

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that power of self-discipline within yourself and

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you're able to make those changes.

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So character matters.

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Character is important to the founding.

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It's important to everything you will do in

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your life.

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And people do not forget people who have

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a strong character.

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They remember that.

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So keep this lesson with you and discuss

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it as a family.

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As always, don't forget to like and subscribe

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to the podcast.

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And until next time, I will talk to

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you later.