Vision vs. Imagination

April 29, 2021

 

I have frequently lamented the fact that I don’t have any imagination. I can’t create, I can just report. So you wouldn’t want me on your advertising team, or planning your glitzy event, or writing what you hope will be the next best-selling novel.

What I do have, though, is Vision. I can see how to use things in a way that many people don’t think of.

The most recent example occurred during a job interview. The company makes refrigeration units, and mentioned that they make the coolers that hold sodas in stores. They said that the units save quite a bit of money in electricity, and they mentioned a few chains that they work with.

I asked if they had ever thought of going into rural areas. Individual store owners would probably welcome the cost savings. Electric companies would probably prefer to use their resources in urban areas, where demand for power keeps growing as people build new houses, with new air conditioners and other appliances; and it would keep them from having to update their infrastructure for a while longer. There might even be grants, I said, that would help the small business owners defray the cost of the new units. After all, utility companies currently buy back energy-sucking refrigerators from residences; why not kick in some cash to relieve some strain on the power grid?

Less than a week later, the power grid in Texas failed. I felt like calling the company back and saying, “See what I mean?”

It feels like I’m surrounded by unseen opportunities that are whizzing by; all I have to do is grab them and make connections. I always took that for granted, until I saw how much other people weren’t doing it.

You want your students to practice their martial arts forms? Sign your school up for one of those events where people get to be the entertainment—a Christmas festival, for example, where groups come and get 20 minutes to sing, or dance, or play instruments; their parents will by golly make sure that they’re prepped and ready to go. So your students will practice their forms and, in addition, you’ll get advertising for the school.

Etc.

It’s not as much fun as Imagination; but Vision is actually a pretty useful thing to have. 

(You’re probably thinking, “Well, this is a pretty self-congratulatory thing to write. What do I care?” But sometimes I need to articulate something nice about myself. And it’s my blog, so why not?)