Business Quote by Benjamin Franklin
“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1750
If you neglect to manage your enterprise, it will control you, turning work into oppression.
In simple terms: Neglect leads to being controlled by your work.
Key Takeaway
Take charge of your business direction.
Themes
responsibility
control
work ethic
Mood
reflective
serious
Type
advice
philosophical
When to use this quote
- starting a company
- daily business decisions
- overworking
- delegating tasks
Key Concepts
entrepreneurship
self‑management
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you maintain autonomy while growing?
- What safeguards prevent work from dominating life?
A Different Perspective
The quote assumes all businesses are equally vulnerable to loss of control.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)