Do you see something and think, "Why didn't I have that idea?" What is the secret to other people's impressive ideas? It’s imagination. When two people have similar knowledge and expertise, their inventiveness separates them.

But why is imagination important?

Imagination leads to inspiration, creativity and originality. It also helps inventors to turn their thoughts into things. Ingenuity, combined with faith and specialized knowledge, makes transforming dreams into reality possible.

Napoleon Hill claims imagination takes two shapes: synthetic and creative.

Synthetic Imagination

Synthetic ingenuity builds new ideas from past material. Our minds reflect on past successes, experiences and failures to create different combinations.

For instance, you like vanilla ice cream. Then, you tried caramel and loved it. Later, you may decide to combine vanilla ice cream and caramel to create a unique, new flavor.

Creative Imagination

Whenever someone says, "I don't know, the idea just came to me," they had a creative idea. Creative ingenuity occurs when the mind vibrates on a higher level. Four things stimulate this form of your imagination:

1. Strong desires.
2. A clear, well-thought-out plan.
3. Relaxing activities like walks and showers.
4. Inspiration from the work of others.

This volume of Think and Grow Rich shares many anecdotal stories. Each one exemplifies how creativity ingenuity and planning aid success. When specialized knowledge, faith or written goals aren't moving you closer to success, use your creative imagination.

This article is part of our Business Coaching blog series. At Dataczar we talk to a lot of small businesses. We’ve found a few books that we keep recommending time and again. To better help our customers, we’ve added a Reading List for Small Businesses to our website. We encourage every small business owner to read and keep these timeless business books on their office shelf.

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