YOUR IMAGINATION MIRROR

"Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it."

Mason Cooley 20th century American professor.

Fantasy: What you want to accomplish.

Imagination: The beginning of your plan to realize your fantasy.

NOT SO SURE ABOUT "LUST", HOWEVER . . .

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) British philosopher.

Lust may be going a bit too far but the underlying point is still valid.

Curiosity is generally a good thing of which you can't have too much.

GOAL: CONSISTENT IMAGINATION

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet/dramatist

Taken to the extreme, which it often is, yes.

The need is for balance.

Be consistent enough to get done what must be done while being open to finding new ways to do it.

I Have No Illusions About That

"It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull."

Joseph Conrad

Late 19th early 20th century British novelist

And in business, not always profitable.

If you're not envisioning (which can lead to illusion) you're not evolving and if you're not doing that at some point you're gone.

Imagine There's No Imagination

"Imagination is the eye of the soul."

Joseph Joubert

18th century French moralist

If you don't consider yourself to be particularly imaginative, hire some people who are.

Imagine That!

"To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything."

Albert Einstein

20th century German-Swiss-US scientist

Well, I do think knowing counts for something, but less so when it gets in the way of imagination.

How's your balance between knowing and imagining?

Imagine Tomorrow

"The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

19th century American poet/essayist

and namesake of my elementary school

Everything is business comes from imagination.

Without it you will not succeed but if you do you will ultimately fail if you do not continually reinvent what and how you do what you do.

While some of the "wisdom" contained within these quotes is debatable, this is not.

In The Balance

"One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead."

Oscar Wilde

19th century Irish poet

When it comes to business we need to be real.

But we also need imagination.

How do you balance the two?

(You Don't Always Have To) GET REAL!

"It is respectful to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull."

Joseph Conrad

Late 19th/early 20th century British novelist

Not always profitable.

Success in business is more often dependent on assumptions than facts, and that includes many things that begin life as an illusion.

Managing Imagination: Turning Ideas Into Action

"Imagination gallops; judgment merely walks."

Proverb

I had a meeting today with an individual whose mind syncs well with mine. Whenever we discuss what his business could be our imaginations feed off of each other with ideas flowing like water.

And like (too much) water, too much imagination can be harmful. We now need to put structure to the best of our thoughts, slowing down our imaginations to let judgment review each; discarding the bad, keeping the good.

Some individuals can do one but not the other. What do you think?

Innovation: Managing Today/Inventing Tomorrow

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

Albert Einstein

I agree. Imagination is the precursor to new knowledge; that which does not currently exist but soon will because someone was imaginative enough to invent something not yet known. But the trick is to balance time spent thinking about the future versus acting on what is already known and that's not easy to do. Because most feel comfortable dealing with what they know, management's job is to get them to venture out of their comfort zone to see what could be.