Power of Mental Imagery | Page 9

must do the forethinking not only for himself but for those
under him.
Perhaps the man you have under observation for advancement to some
executive position has all the basic qualifications of judicial sense,
discrimination and attentiveness to details, but you are uncertain
whether he has enough imagination to devise new ways and means of
doing things and developing business in new fields. If you wish to try a
simple but very effective test along this line, you can adopt the
following standard psychological experiment, which has been used at
Harvard, Cornell and many other colleges and schools.
[Sidenote: How to Test an Employee's Imagination]
Let fall a drop of ink on each of several pieces of white paper,
letterhead size. This will make irregular blotches of varying forms. Let
the subject be seated at a desk and ask him to write briefly about what
he sees in each blotched sheet, whether it be an animal form suggested
by the outline of the blot, or anything else that comes into his mind

while looking at the black spot. The principle involved here is the same
as that involved in seeing pictures in a flickering log fire or having a
vision of past or future events by gazing into a crystal. In any of these
cases, it is not the blot, the fire or the crystal that produces the vision,
but the creative imagination that recombines old elements into new
forms. The number of images suggested to one by certain standard
forms of ink-blot when compared with established results is a measure
of his imaginative ability.
[Sidenote: Imagination in Business Generally]
In the choice of a location for your factory or store, you must foresee its
future traffic and transportation possibilities. In passing upon a
proposed advertisement you must get inside the head of the man on the
street and see it as he will see it. In the purchase of your stock of goods
you must gauge the trend of popular taste and foresee the big demand.
In your dealings with creditors you must plan a course of action that
will enable you to settle the account to your best interest at their
request. You must find a way to collect from your debtors and at the
same time hold their business. And so in a hundred thousand different
ways you are constantly required to use creative thought in laying every
stone in the structure of your fortune.
[Sidenote: Imagination and Action]
Do not understand us as saying that imagination, as the term is
popularly used, is all you need. There must be also action, incessant,
persistent. But creative imagination, in a psychological and scientific
sense, begets action. Every thought carries with it the impellent energy
to effect its realization. Use your imagination in your business and the
action will take care of itself. Given imagination and action, and you
are sure to win.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Removed duplicate sidenotes and adjusted placement of sidenotes.

The original book used asterisks as ellipses.

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