TAGR #5: Imagination

This chapter of TAGR deals with the power of the mind to imagine not just a goal, but potential ways of reaching the goal.

I like to define intelligence as problem solving. WISDOM is knowing which problems to solve. But once you have chosen, the ability to analyze potential paths to your goal (by modeling several successful people who started as close to your position as possible) is essential.

There was no one I knew of who had ever accomplished what I wanted in science fiction. But even as a child, I had the imagination to think that skills in other arenas might well apply. And so looked at the two core disciplines: science and fiction writing. Had black men succeeded in those foundational fields? Yes. So if I studied their lives, I could find the tools which, in combination, might well lead ME to success.

Then, I could look at ANY science fiction writers, white or not, male or female, and see what basic principles used by black scientists, and black fiction writers, agreed with what successes like Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein said about THEIR successes.

And by following the “critical path” that all of them agreed upon, I evolved a course of action.

Imagination. I SAW the goal, and THEORIZED that the principles of success used by various groups of people might show me how to focus my time and energy, my intellect and emotion, to reach my goal.

Problem solving. If your goal is “Earn X amount of money by Y date” you would look at the lives of…