Imagination: The Real Key To Success In Business

When most people have an image of a business person in their minds the business person representation most often resembles some blank faced accountant generalization, or some sweet faced extroverted sales person, typically this image is of an all work no play serious type.

It is not so often that you might pick up the paper and read of the latest business tycoon with descriptive words reflecting one who is artistic, imaginative and overall highly creative.

Unfortunately the media too often reflects a caricature of a business person as some boring straight faced type unable to think outside of the usual square. Generally they will be represented at nothing but practical and hard lined. Sadly many business people themselves will see themselves as falling into this mould.

The fact is that genuine success in business is the result of some highly imaginative and creative thinking. While corporations are effectively ran using hard guide lines, rules and regulations, the entrepreneur behind it all has had to be one who effectively delves into their imagination and creativity. The more innovative corporations will retain a little of this flavor from its founding father resulting in a model corporation that others strive to be.

Think and Grow Rich a phenomenal book by Napoleon Hill outlines in detail the absolute vital role that imagination plays in business. This book discusses two types of imaginative faculties, that of creative imagination and synthetic imagination.

Synthetic imagination provides us with the ability to arrange old concepts, business models, plans and ideas and turn them into brand new combinations. Nothing new may have been created a pattern emerges that creates new and surprising results. An example of this might be a self service grocery store where customers follow the process of shopping which is now very familiar to us, whereas once upon a time grocery shopping was done by presenting your list to a store attendant, who would collect the list items. None of us would remember stores without isles, shopping carts and signs where the job of today's store attendant is simply to check us out with a bill.

Even today the second model of having the store attendant check us out is changing; some stores are now even offering a service where the customer checks themselves out. Today's customer does absolutely everything, wheeling the trolley, selecting the goods and items, packing their own bags and even checking themselves out before carrying the bags to the car. Interestingly the result is a happier more comfortable shopping experience.

Creative imagination whoever is a completely different thing again, some might say mystical. Napoleon Hill describes it in his book "Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite mind of man had direct communication with Infinite Intelligence. It is the faculty through which 'hunches' and 'inspirations' are received. It is by this faculty that all basic or new ideas are handed over to man. It is through this faculty that individuals may "tune in," or communicate with the subconscious mind of other men."

An example of this creative imagination may be seen in the ingenious creation of the original Coca Cola recipe that continued to inspire the entire enormous soft drink industry. There was nothing conservative from these roots, the imaginative marketing campaigns that followed even lent to inspire the modern day image of Santa Clause in his red and white suite. This is rarely mentioned in business relations. We are more often than not led to believe that imagination is restricted to the skills of an artist.

Once a business person or entrepreneur to begin to use more imagination will certainly see many more ways to build profits and make more money creating new channels and exciting marketing campaigns.