Lesson Six - Imagination / Using Your Creative Abilities

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A farmer moved to the city, taking with him his well trained shepherd dog. He soon found that the dog was out of place in the city, so he decided to "get rid of him." (Note the words in quotation.)

 

Taking the dog with him he went out into the country and rapped on the door of a farm-house. A man came hobbling to the door, on crutches. The man with the dog greeted the man in the house in these words "You wouldn't care to buy a fine shepherd dog, that I wish to get rid of, would you?"

 

The man on crutches replied, "No!" and closed the door.

 

The man with the dog called at half a dozen other farm-houses, asking the same question, and received the same answer.

 

He made up his mind that no one wanted the dog and returned to the city.

 

That evening he was telling of his misfortune, to a man of imagination. The man heard how the owner of the dog had tried in vain to "get rid of him."

 

"Let me dispose of the dog for you," said the man of imagination. The owner was willing.

 

The next morning the man of imagination took the dog out into the country and stopped at the first house at which the owner of the dog had called the day before. The same old man hobbled out on crutches and answered the knock at the door.

 

The man of imagination greeted him in this fashion: "I see you are all crippled with rheumatism. What you need is a fine dog to run errands for you. I have a dog here that has been trained to bring home the cows, drive away wild animals, herd the sheep and perform other useful services. You may have this dog for a hundred dollars." 

 

"All right," said the crippled man, "I'll take him!"

 

That, too, was imagination!

 

No one wants a dog that someone else wants to "get rid of," but most anyone would like to own a dog that would herd sheep and bring home the cows and perform other useful services.

 

The dog was the same one that the crippled buyer had refused the day before, but the man who sold the dog was not the man who had tried to "get rid of him."

 

Remember that which was said about the Law of Attraction through the operation of which "like attracts like." If you look and act the part of a failure you will attract nothing but failures.

 

Whatever your life-work may be, it calls for the use of imagination.

 

Niagara Falls was nothing but a great mass of roaring water until a man of imagination harnessed it and converted the wasted energy into electric current that now turns the wheels of industry.

 

Before this man of imagination came along millions of people had seen and heard those roaring falls, but lacked the imagination to harness them.

 

The first Rotary Club of the world was born in the fertile imagination of Paul Harris, of Chicago, who saw in this child of his brain an effective means of cultivating prospective clients and the extension of his law practice.

 

The ethics of the legal profession forbid advertising in the usual way, but Paul Harris' imagination found a way to extend his law practice without advertising in the usual way.

 

If the winds of Fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination.

 

A kite rises against the wind - not with it!

 

• Dr. Frank Crane was a struggling "third-rate" preacher until the starvation wages of the clergy forced him to use his imagination. Now he earns upward of a hundred thousand dollars a year for an hour's work a day, writing essays.

• Bud Fisher once worked for a mere pittance, but he now earns seventy-five thousand dollars a year by making folks grin, with his Mutt and Jeff comic strip. No art goes into his drawings, therefore he must be selling his imagination.

• Woolworth was a poorly paid clerk in a retail store - poorly paid, perhaps, because he had not yet found out that he had imagination. Before he died he built the tallest office building in the world and girdled the United States with Five and Ten Cent Stores, through the use of his imagination.

 

You will observe, by analyzing these illustrations, that a close study of human nature played an important part in the achievements mentioned. To make profitable use of your imagination you must make it give you a keen insight into the motives that cause men to do or refrain from doing a given act.

 

If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.

 

I saw my wife make a very clever sale to our baby not long ago. The baby was pounding the top of our mahogany library table with a spoon. When my wife reached for the spoon the baby refused to give it up, but being a woman of imagination she offered the baby a nice stick of red candy; he dropped the spoon immediately and centered his attention on the more desirable object. She won her point without using force.

 

That was imagination! It was also salesmanship.

 

I was riding in an automobile with a friend who was driving beyond the speed limit. An officer rode up on a motorcycle and told my friend he was under arrest for speeding.

 

The friend smiled pleasantly at the officer and said: "I'm sorry to have brought you out in all this rain, but I wanted to make the ten o'clock train with my friend here, and I was hitting it up around thirty-five miles an hour."

 

"No, you were only going twenty-eight miles an hour," replied the officer, "and as long as you are so nice about it I will let you off this time if you will watch yourself hereafter."

 

And that, too, was imagination!

 

Even a traffic cop will listen to reason when approached in the right manner, but woe unto the motorist who tries to bully the cop into believing his speedometer was not registering properly.

 

There is one form of imagination against which I would caution you. It is the brand which prompts some people to imagine that they can get something for nothing, or that they can force themselves ahead in the world without observing the rights of others.

 

There is a man in the Ohio penitentiary who has served more than thirty-five years for forgery, and the largest amount he ever got from his misapplication of imagination was twelve dollars.

 

There are a few people who direct their imaginations in the vain attempt to work out a way to show what happens when "an immovable body comes in contact with an irresistible force," but these types belong in the psychopathic hospitals.

 

There is also another form of misapplied imagination; namely, that of the young boy or girl who knows more about life than his or her "Mom or Dad." But this form is subject to modification with time.

 

My own boys have taught me many things that my "Dad" tried, in vain, to teach me when I was their age.

 

Time and imagination teach us many things, but nothing of more importance than this: That all men are much alike in many ways. If you would know what your customer is thinking, Mr. Salesman, study yourself and find out what you would be thinking if you were in your customer's place. Study yourself, find out what are the motives which actuate you in the performance of certain deeds and cause you to refrain from performing other deeds, and you will have gone far toward perfecting yourself in the accurate use of imagination.

 

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The detective's biggest asset is imagination. The first question he asks, when called in to solve a crime is: "What was the motive?" If he can find out the motive he can usually find the perpetrator of the crime.

 

A man who had lost a horse posted a reward of five dollars for its return. Several days later a boy who was supposed to have been "weak-minded" came leading the horse home and claimed the reward. The owner was curious to know how the boy found the horse. "How did you ever think where to look for the horse?" he asked, and the boy replied, "Well, I just thought where I would have gone if I had been a horse and went there, and he had."

 

Not so bad for a "weakminded" fellow.

 

Some who are not accused of being weak-minded go all the way through life without displaying as much evidence of imagination as did this boy.

 

If you want to know what the other fellow will do, use your imagination, put yourself in his place and find out what you would have done.

 

That's imagination. Every person should be somewhat of a dreamer. Every business needs the dreamer. Every industry and every profession needs him. But, the dreamer must be, also, a doer; or else he must form an alliance with someone who can and does translate dreams into reality.

 

The greatest nation upon the face of this earth was conceived, born and nurtured through the early days of its childhood, as the result of imagination in the minds of men who combined dreams with action!

 

Your mind is capable of creating many new and useful combinations of old ideas, but the most important thing it can create is a definite chief aim that will give you that which you most desire.

 

Your definite chief aim can be speedily translated into reality

after you have fashioned it in the cradle of your imagination.

 

If you have faithfully followed the instructions set down for your guidance in Lesson One you are now well on the road toward success, because you know what it is that you want, and you have a plan for getting that which you want.

 

The battle for the achievement of success is half won when one knows definitely what is wanted.

 

The battle is all over except the "shouting" when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

 

The selection of a definite chief aim calls for the use of both imagination and decision!

 

The power of decision grows with use. Prompt decision in forcing the imagination to create a definite chief aim renders more powerful the capacity to reach decisions in other matters.

 

Adversities and temporary defeat are generally blessings in disguise,

for the reason that they force one to use both imagination and decision.

 

This is why a man usually makes a better fight when his back is to the wall and he knows there is no retreat. He then reaches the decision to fight instead of running.

 

The imagination is never quite so active as it is when one faces some emergency calling for quick definite decision and action. In these moments of emergency men have reached decisions, built plans, used their imagination in such a manner that they became known as geniuses.

 

Many a genius has been born out of the necessity

for unusual stimulation of the imagination,

as the result of some trying experience

which forced quick thought and prompt decision.

 

It is a well known fact that the only manner in which an overpampered boy or girl may be made to become useful is by forcing him or her to become selfsustaining. This calls for the exercise of both imagination and decision, neither of which would be used except out of necessity.

 

The Reverend P. W. Welshimer is the pastor of a church in Canton, Ohio. Three years constitute the usual time that one pastor may remain in a given pastorate without wearing out his welcome.

 

The church of which Reverend Welshimer is the leader has a Sunday School of over 5,000 members - the largest membership enjoyed by any church in the United States.

 

No pastor could have remained at the head of one church for a quarter of a century, with the full consent of his followers, and have built up a Sunday School of this size, without employing the Laws of Initiative and Leadership, a Definite Chief Aim, Self-confidence and Imagination.

 

The author of this course made it his business to study the methods employed by Reverend Welshimer, and they are here described for the benefit of the students of this philosophy.

 

It is a well known fact that church factions, jealousy, etc., often lead to disagreements which make a change in leaders essential.

 

Reverend Welshimer has steered around this common obstacle by a unique application of the Law of Imagination.

 

When a new member comes into his church he immediately assigns a DEFINITE task to that member - one that suits the temperament, training and business qualifications of the individual, as nearly as possible - and, to use the minister's own words, he "keeps each member so busy pulling for the church that there is no time left for kicking or disagreeing with other members."

 

Not a bad policy for application in the field of business, or in any other field.

 

The old saying that "idle hands are the devil's best tools" is more than a mere play upon words, for it is true.

 

Give any man something to do that he likes to do, and keep him busy doing it, and he will not be apt to degenerate into a disorganizing force.

 

If any member of the Sunday School misses attendance twice in succession a committee from the church calls to find out the reason for the failure to attend. There is a "committee" job for practically every member of the church. In this way Reverend Welshimer delegates to the members, themselves, the responsibility of rounding up the delinquents and keeping them interested in church affairs. He is an organizer of the highest type. His efforts have attracted the attention of business men throughout the country, and times too numerous to be mentioned he has been offered positions, at fancy salaries, by banks, steel plants, business houses, etc., that recognized in him a real Leader.

 

In the basement of the church Reverend Welshimer operates a first-class printing plant where he publishes, weekly, a very creditable church paper that goes to all the members. The production and distribution of this paper is another source of employment which keeps the church members out of mischief, as practically all of them take some sort of an active interest in it.

 

The paper is devoted exclusively to the affairs of the church as a whole, and those of the individual members. It is read by each member, line by line, because there is always a chance that each member's name may be mentioned in the news locals.

 

The church has a well trained choir and an orchestra that would be a credit to some of the largest theaters. Here Reverend Welshimer serves the double purpose of supplying entertainment and at the same time keeping the more "temperamental" members who are artists employed so they, also, remain out of mischief, incidentally giving them a chance to do that which they like best.

 

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The late Dr. Harper, who was formerly president of the University of Chicago, was one of the most efficient college presidents of his time. He had a penchant for raising funds in large amounts. It was he who induced John D. Rockefeller to contribute millions of dollars to the support of the University of Chicago.

 

It may be helpful to the student of this philosophy to study Dr. Harper's technique, because he was a Leader of the highest order. Moreover, I have his own word for it that his leadership was never a matter of chance or accident, but always the result of carefully planned procedure.

 

The following incident will serve to show just how Dr. Harper made use of imagination in raising money in large sums: He needed an extra million dollars for the construction of a new building.

 

Taking inventory of the wealthy men of Chicago to whom he might turn for this large sum, he decided upon two men, each of whom was a millionaire, and both were bitter enemies.

 

One of these men was, at that time, the head of the Chicago Street Railway system.

 

Choosing the noon hour, when the office force and this man's secretary, in particular, would be apt to be out at lunch, Dr. Harper nonchalantly strolled into the office, and, finding no one on guard at the outer door, walked into the office of his intended "victim," whom he surprised by his appearance unannounced.

 

"My name is Harper," said the doctor, "and I am president of the University of Chicago. Pardon my intrusion, but I found no one in the outer office (which was no mere accident) so I took the liberty of walking on in."

 

"I have thought of you and your street railway system many many times. You have built up a wonderful system, and I understand that you have made lots of money for your efforts. I never think of you, however, without its occurring to me that one of these days you will be passing out into the Great Unknown, and after you are gone there will be nothing left as a monument to your name, because others will take over your money, and money has a way of losing its identity very quickly, as soon as it changes hands."

 

"I have often thought of offering you the opportunity to perpetuate your name by permitting you to build a new Hall out on the University grounds, and naming it after you. I would have offered you this opportunity long ago had it not been for the fact that one of the members of our Board wishes the honor to go to Mr. X_"(the street car head's enemy).

 

"Personally, however, I have always favored you and I still favor you, and if I have your permission to do so I am going to try to swing the opposition over to you. "I have not come to ask for any decision today, however, as I was just passing and thought it a good time to drop in and meet you. Think the matter over and if you wish to talk to me about it again, telephone me at your leisure.

 

"Good day, sir! I am happy to have had this opportunity of meeting you."

 

With this he bowed himself out without giving the head of the street car company a chance to say either yes or no.

 

In fact the street car man had very little chance to do any talking. Dr. Harper did the talking. That was as he planned it to be. He went into the office merely to plant the seed, believing that it would germinate and spring into life in due time.

 

His belief was not without foundation. He had hardly returned to his office at the University when the telephone rang. The street car man was on the other end of the wire. He asked for an appointment with Dr. Harper, which was granted, and the two met in Dr. Harper's office the next morning, and the check for a million dollars was in Dr. Harper's hands an hour later.

 

Despite the fact that Dr. Harper was a small, rather insignificant-looking man it was said of him that "he had a way about him that enabled him to get everything he went after." And as to this "way" that he was reputed to have had - what was it? It was nothing more nor less than his understanding of the power of Imagination.

 

Suppose he had gone to the office of the street car head and asked for an appointment.

 

Sufficient time would have elapsed between the time he called and the time when he would have actually seen his man, to have enabled the latter to anticipate the reason for his call, and also to formulate a good, logical excuse for saying, "No!"

 

Suppose, again, he had opened his interview with the street car man something like this: "The University is badly in need of funds and I have come to you to ask your help. You have made lots of money and you owe something to the community in which you have made it. (Which, perhaps, was true.) If you will give us a million dollars we will place your name on a new Hall that we wish to build."

 

What might have been the result?

 

In the first place, there would have been no motive suggested that was sufficiently appealing to sway the mind of the street car man. While it may have been true that he "owed something to the community from which he had made a fortune," he probably would not have admitted that fact.

 

In the second place, he would have enjoyed the position of being on the offensive instead of the defensive side of the proposal. But Dr. Harper, shrewd in the use of Imagination as he was, provided for just such contingencies by the way he stated his case.

 

1. First, he placed the street car man on the defensive by informing him that it was not certain that he (Dr. Harper) could get the permission of his Board to accept the money and name the Hall after the street car man.

2. In the second place, he intensified the desire of the street car man to have his name on that building because of the thought that his enemy and competitor might get the honor if it got away from him.

 

Moreover (and this was no accident, either), Dr. Harper had made a powerful appeal to one of the most common of all human weaknesses by showing this street car man how to perpetuate his own name.

 

All of which required a practical application of the Law of Imagination.

 

Dr. Harper was a Master Salesman. When he asked men for money he always paved the way for success by planting in the mind of the man of whom he asked it a good sound reason why the money should be given; a reason which emphasized some advantage accruing to the man as the result of the gift.

 

Often this would take on the form of a business advantage. Again it would take on the nature of an appeal to that part of man's nature which prompts him to wish to perpetuate his name so it will live after him. But, always, the request for money was carried out according to a plan that had been carefully thought out, embellished and smoothed down with the use of Imagination.

 

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While the Laws of Success philosophy was in the embryonic stage, long before it had been organized into a systematic course of instruction and reduced to textbooks, the author was lecturing on this philosophy in a small town in Illinois.

 

One of the members of the audience was a young life insurance salesman who had but recently taken up that line of work. After hearing what was said on the subject of Imagination he began to apply what he had heard to his own problem of selling life insurance.

 

Something was said, during the lecture, about the value of allied effort, through which men may enjoy greater success by co-operative effort, through a working arrangement under which each "boosts" the interests of the other.

 

Taking this suggestion as his cue, the young man in question immediately formulated a plan whereby he gained the co-operation of a group of business men who were in no way connected with the insurance business.

 

Going to the leading grocer in his town he made arrangements with that grocer to give a thousand dollar insurance policy to every customer purchasing no less than fifty dollars' worth of groceries each month.

 

He then made it a part of his business to inform people of this arrangement and brought in many new customers.

 

The groceryman had a large neatly lettered card placed in his store, informing his customers of this offer of free insurance, thus helping himself by offering all his customers an inducement to do ALL their trading in the grocery line with him.

 

This young life insurance man then went to the leading gasoline filling station owner in the town and made arrangements with him to insure all customers who purchased all their gasoline, oil and other motor supplies from him.

 

Next he went to the leading restaurant in the town and made a similar arrangement with the owner. Incidentally, this alliance proved to be quite profitable to the restaurant man, who promptly began an advertising campaign in which he stated that his food was so pure, wholesome and good that all who ate at his place regularly would be apt to live much longer, therefore he would insure the life of each regular customer for $1,000.00.

 

The life insurance salesman then made arrangements with a local builder and real estate man to insure the life of each person buying property from him, for an amount sufficient to pay off the balance due on the property in case the purchaser died before payments were completed.

 

The young man in question is the General Agent for one of the largest life insurance companies in the United States, with headquarters in one of the largest cities in Ohio, and his income now averages well above $25,000.00 a year.

 

The turning-point in his life came when he discovered how he might make practical use of the Law of Imagination.

 

There is no patent on his plan. It may be duplicated over and over again by other life insurance men who know the value of imagination.

 

Just now, if I were engaged in selling life insurance, I think I should make use of this plan by allying myself with a group of automobile distributors in each of several cities, thus enabling them to sell more automobiles and at the same time providing for the sale of a large amount of life insurance, through their efforts.

 

Financial success is not difficult to achieve after one learns how to make practical use of creative imagination.

 

Someone with sufficient initiative & leadership, and the necessary imagination, will duplicate the fortunes being made each year by the owners of Five and Ten Cent Stores, by developing a system of marketing the same sort of goods now sold in these stores, with the aid of vending machines.

 

This will save a fortune in clerk hire, insure against theft, and cut down the overhead of store operation in many other ways. Such a system can be conducted just as successfully as food can be dispensed with the aid of automatic vending machines.

 

The seed of the idea has been here sown. It is yours for the taking! Someone with an inventive turn of the mind is going to make a fortune and at the same time save thousands of lives each year, by perfecting an automatic railroad crossing "control" that will reduce the number of automobile accidents on crossings.

 

The system, when perfected, will work somewhat after this fashion: A hundred yards or so before reaching the railroad crossing the automobile will cross a platform somewhat on the order of a large scale platform used for weighing heavy objects, and the weight of the automobile will lower a gate and ring a gong. This will force the automobile to slow down. After the lapse of one minute the gate will again rise and the car may continue on its way. Meanwhile, there will have been plenty of time for observation of the track in both directions, to make sure that no trains are approaching. Imagination, plus some mechanical skill, will give the motorist this much needed safe-guard, and make the man who perfects the system all the money he needs and much more besides.

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Lesson Six - Imagination / Using Your Creative Abilities

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