If you’ve been listening to or partaking in the Master key Coaching Teleseminars, then know that we’ve been talking quite a bit about visualization — using your creative imagination to build powerful images of your goal. (If you don’t know this, then you should definitely listen to the episodes that are available and make plans to listen each and every Monday night at 8 pm EST!)
We also know that Nikola Tesla was a practitioner of visualization and stated that he wouldn’t make one move to build his idea until it was clear in his mind.
In an interview, John Sculley, the CEO of Apple from 1983 to 1993, described a meeting between Steve Jobs, the founder and current CEO of Apple, and Edwin Land, the co-founder of Polaroid. Here is what he said.
I remember when Steve and I went to meet Dr Land.
Dr. Land had been kicked out of Polaroid. He had his own lab on the Charles River in Cambridge. It was a fascinating afternoon because we were sitting in this big conference room with an empty table. Dr Land and Steve were both looking at the center of the table the whole time they were talking. Dr Land was saying: “I could see what the Polaroid camera should be. It was just as real to me as if it was sitting in front of me before I had ever built one.”
And Steve said: “Yeah, that’s exactly the way I saw the Macintosh.” He said if I asked someone who had only used a personal calculator what a Macintosh should be like they couldn’t have told me. There was no way to do consumer research on it so I had to go and create it and then show it to people and say now what do you think?
Both of them had this ability to not invent products, but discover products. Both of them said these products have always existed – it’s just that no one has ever seen them before. We were the ones who discovered them. The Polaroid camera always existed and the Macintosh always existed — it’s a matter of discovery. Steve had huge admiration for Dr. Land. He was fascinated by that trip.
Interesting, yes?
It’s somewhat familiar to the interview with Henry M. Flagler that Mr. Haanel quoted in Week Sixteen of The Master Key System.
8. The power to create depends entirely upon spiritual power. There are three steps: Idealization, visualization, and materialization. Every captain of industry depends upon this power exclusively. In an article in Everybody’s Magazine, Henry M. Flagler, the Standard Oil multimillionaire, admitted that the secret of his success was his power to see a thing in its completeness. The following conversation with the reporter shows his power of idealization, concentration, and visualization—all spiritual powers:
9. “Did you actually vision to yourself the whole thing? I mean, did you, or could you, really close your eyes and see the tracks? And the trains running? And hear the whistles blowing? Did you go as far as that?”
“Yes.”
“How clearly?”
“Very clearly.”
Even more interesting, is it not?
Follow and practice the exercises in The Master Key System.
Listen to the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars.
And get Charles F. Haanel’s Complete Master Key Course.
Whatever you do, learn how to visualize properly and correctly. Because you’ll be glad that you did.
Great article Tony. It’s funny because I recently read a book on Jobs that recounts that story.
But I get confused when people talk of visualization. In the Jobs story, it doesn’t seem like visualization but looks more like Plato’s theory of recollection (the Mac always existed and Jobs simply discovered it).
I’m not sure. I’m sure there is a difference between ideation, visualization, and concentration. But it depends on who you ask, I guess. Maybe I need to read more Haanel 🙂
Hi Carlon!
Thanks for the comment. Well, there’s when people talk about visualization — and there’s when people talk about visualization properly. 😉
There’s the form of visualization that’s bantered about that’s nothing more than mental masturbation: think about the things you want, really feel them in your possession, and they’ll “manifest” if the Universe feels that you’re on the correct vibrational level. (Or something like that.)
Then there’s visualization in which one “sees” the end result or the goal and in doing so also “sees” the means and methods that according to his current knowledge will be the best path to its attainment. In the cases of Jobs, Land, and Flagler, they saw, respectively, a computer that could be used by anyone without massive training, a camera that would allow people to enjoy their pictures instantly and without needing professional developing, and an empire that would supply the energy needs of many people.
Actually, some would indeed say that this is an aspect of Plato’s theory of recollection (or forms) — that all things exist but we just have to remember them. I would not. Using the three aforementioned fellows as examples, they’re bright guys who imagined something cool, built their ideas in their minds, then worked their asses off to make them.
The three items you mentioned — ideation, visualization, and concentration — are different, but they’re tied together, like a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. First you see a problem and then have the idea for its solution — the peanut butter (Ohhh, that’s good!); next, you begin to visualize what the solution would be and you build it until you think you’ve mentally solved it and have the image in mind — the jelly (Yummm!); finally, it’s the power of concentration, the ability to stick with the hard mental labor, the focus on that one thing, that ties it all together — the bread (Yay! Lunch!).
Of course, you can read the MKS. You can also just listen to my teleseminars — http://www.tuneinunlockattain.com. 🙂
For those of you reading the comments, visit Carlon’s blog: http://dontstepinthepoop.com/. (WARNING! Do NOT drink anything whilst reading his blog. You’ll ruin your keyboard. You’ve been warned.)
Have fun … Tony.