This chapter of Think And Grow Rich doesn’t sound like much until you actually read it. Everyone knows imagination is important for innovation, which in turn brings much riches when done right. 

I like it that the author tries to debunk the age-old debate about ideas vs execution. Ideas—the products of imagination—alone is not enough to gain wealth. This is a common refrain, especially in tech circles. That it’s all about the idea. But it’s really bs. Yes, generating innovative ideas are important but knowing how to use ideas practically via purpose and planning is just as important, if not more. The old debate about ideas vs execution is nothing more than a false dichotomy, pitting two options against each other when their relationship is really complementary rather than opposing. Look deeper, it’s nothing more than an intellectual vanity to say that ideas beat execution. Likewise, it’s nothing more than moral high-horsing to say that hard work and honesty will get you riches. 

This chapter is also the start of the weird aspect of the book. He talks about how “creative imagination works automatically…[it] functions ONLY when the conscious mind is vibrating at an exceedingly rapid rate.” Consciousness vibrating at a high rate? That’s something I only hear about from the new age spiritual circles. Probably earliest was the hippie era. But 1930s?! 

More notes below. Sharing them here as reference for myself, and for anyone who might find it useful. This is not a book review, just raw notes lifted directly from the book, with some minor edits, interpretations and categorisations of my own.

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Think And Grow Rich (5):

Imagination: The Workshop of the mind, the fifth step to riches

2 forms of imagination

Synthetic imagination: arrange old concepts, ideas, or plans into new combinations. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation with which it is fed. It is the faculty used most by the inventor, with the exception of the “genius” who draws upon the creative imagination, when he cannot solve his problem through synthetic imagination.

Creative imagination: Through creative imagination, the finite mind of man has 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 thought vibrations from the minds of others are received. It is through this faculty that one individual may “tune in”, or communicate with the subconscious minds of other men. The creative imagination works automatically…[it] functions ONLY when the conscious mind is vibrating at an exceedingly rapid rate, as for example, when the conscious mind is stimulated through the emotion of a strong desire.

Desire is only a thought, an impulse. It is nebulous and ephemeral. It is abstract, and of no value, until it has been transformed into its physical counterpart. While the synthetic imagination is the one which will be used most frequently, in the process of transforming the impulse of DESIRE into money, you must keep in mind the fact, that you may face circumstance and situation which demand use of the creative imagination as well.

DESIRE is thought impulse! Thought impulses are forms of energy. When you begin with the thought impulse, DESIRE, to accumulate money, you are drafting into your service the same “stuff” that Nature used in creating this earth, and every material form in the universe, including the body and brain in which the thought impulses function.

How to make practical use of imagination

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. Ideas are products of the imagination. 

IDEAS CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER OF DEFINITE PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS. If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty, alone, will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true! Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of HARD work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck.

Millions of people go through life hoping for favorable “breaks”. Perhaps a favorable break can get one an opportunity, but the safest plan is not to depend upon luck.

When the idea was first planted in my mind, it was coaxed, nursed, and enticed to remain alive. Gradually, the idea became a giant under its own power, and it coaxed, nursed, and drove me. Ideas are like that. First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all opposition. Ideas are intangible forces, but they have more power than the physical brains that give birth to them. They have the power to live on, after the brain that creates them has returned to dust.