Creative Vision

Andrew Carnegie in Conversation with Napoleon Hill

Table of Contents

Section I — The Nature of Creative Vision
Section II — The Two Types of Imagination
Section III — Edison and the Power of Persistence
Section IV — Charging the Subconscious Mind
Section V — Henry Ford and Obsessional Desire
Section VI — Practical Applications of Imagination
Section VII — Stimulation of the Imagination
Section VIII — Imagination in Sales and Leadership
Section IX — The Difference Between Imagination and Creative Vision
Section X — The Ten Factors of Creative Vision

Section I — The Nature of Creative Vision

A philosopher once said:

“Imagination is the workshop of man wherein is fashioned the pattern of all his achievements.”

Another thinker described it as “the workshop of the soul, wherein man’s hopes and desires are made ready for material expression.”

This chapter describes the methods by which some of the great leaders of America, through the application of Creative Vision, have made the American way of life the envy of the world.

It begins in the private study of Andrew Carnegie in 1908 — with me, Napoleon Hill, as student and reporter.

The Dialogue Begins

Hill: Mr. Carnegie, you have said that Creative Vision is one of the principles of individual achievement. Will you analyze this principle and describe how one may make practical use of it?

Carnegie: First of all, let us have a clear understanding of the meaning of the term Creative Vision as we are here using it — by explaining that this is not merely another name for imagination. It is the ability to recognize opportunities and take action to benefit from them.

An important part of Creative Vision is the use of the imagination.

Section II — The Two Types of Imagination

Carnegie: There are two types of imagination:

1. Synthetic Imagination, and
   
   

2. Creative Imagination.
   
   

Synthetic Imagination consists of the act of combining recognized ideas, concepts, plans, facts, and principles into new arrangements. The old axiom “There is nothing new under the sun” grew out of the fact that most things which seem to be new are merely a rearrangement of what is old.

Practically all patents recorded in the Patent Office are nothing more than old ideas arranged in new order or given new use. Patents which do not come under this heading are known as basic patents — the work of Creative Imagination — based on newly created ideas which have never before been used or recognized.

Hill: Which of the two types of imagination is used more often in the field of industry and in the ordinary walks of life?

Carnegie: Synthetic Imagination is more commonly used. Creative Imagination, as the name implies, is used only by those who have attained the means to apply this unusual skill.

Section III — Edison and the Power of Persistence

Hill: Will you mention examples of the application of both types of imagination?

Carnegie: Let us take the work of Thomas A. Edison. By studying his achievements, we see how he used both types of imagination — though the synthetic type more often. His first invention to attract world-wide attention was the incandescent electric lamp.

He perfected it only after more than 10,000 different combinations of old ideas failed to produce satisfactory results.

Hill: Do you mean, Mr. Carnegie, that Mr. Edison had the persistence to keep on trying in the face of 10,000 failures?

Carnegie: Yes, exactly that. Men with a keen sense of imagination seldom quit trying until they find the answer to their problems.

Perfect ✅
We’ll continue directly here — same book-quality style, classical rhythm, indented dialogue, and page-style section divisions.

Chapter One — Creative Vision

(continued)

Section IV — Charging the Subconscious Mind

Hill: You say that Mr. Edison impressed his subconscious mind with the idea of a talking machine. How did he go about doing this, and how long did it take before his subconscious mind handed him the working principle?

Carnegie: I’m not sure Mr. Edison ever stated exactly how long he had been thinking of such a machine before his subconscious mind picked up the thought and translated it into a perfected plan. But it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks — perhaps only a few days.

His method was simple. He converted the desire into an obsession. The thought of a machine that would record and reproduce sound became the dominating idea of his mind. He concentrated on it daily until this form of autosuggestion penetrated his subconscious mind and registered a clear picture of his desire.

Hill: So that’s the way one connects the conscious mind with the subconscious?

Carnegie: Exactly. That is the simplest known method.
You see why I emphasize intensifying one’s desires until they become obsessional.
A deep, burning desire is picked up by the subconscious and acted upon far more effectively than an ordinary wish.

Fleeting thoughts and mere wishes make no impression upon the subconscious mind. Repetition of thought — especially when charged with emotion — creates thought habits, and those habits direct the mind even when one is not consciously thinking.

Section V — Henry Ford and Obsessional Desire

Hill: Then anyone may use creative imagination simply by charging his subconscious mind with definite desires?

Carnegie: Yes. There’s nothing to hinder anyone — except lack of discipline and concentration. Practical results come only to those who have trained their thought habits.

Take Henry Ford, for example. The idea of a self-propelled vehicle first struck him when he saw a steam-propelled tractor hauling a threshing machine. From that moment, his mind began to work on the idea of a horseless buggy.

At first, he used only synthetic imagination — thinking of ways to adapt the steam tractor for passenger transport. But the idea became an obsession. His burning desire carried the thought into his subconscious, where it was picked up and acted upon.

From that action came the suggestion to replace the steam engine with an internal-combustion engine. Guided step by step by his subconscious mind, Ford perfected the planetary power-transmission system that became the working model of the automobile.

Carnegie (summarizing):

“Ford’s success was due to a Definite Major Purpose, fanned into a white-heat flame of obsession. That desire stimulated both synthetic and creative imagination. Then came persistence — and faith.”

Ford met defeat after defeat: lack of capital, production challenges, disagreements within his Mastermind group — yet he persisted. Persistence, backed by definiteness of purpose, is the greatest stimulant of imagination.

Section VI — Practical Applications of Imagination

Hill: Will you name other examples of imagination in action?

Carnegie: Certainly. Consider Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone. His motive was deeply personal — to help his wife, whose hearing was impaired. His sympathy gave obsessional force to his desire. Through long research, his subconscious mind delivered the principle that made the telephone practical.

Another case: the first mail-order business in America. A telegraph operator, seeking to earn extra income, began selling watches to fellow operators by telegraph. When he was dismissed from his job, he turned adversity into advantage — and created the first mail-order house by sending catalogs through the post.

He applied nothing new — only synthetic imagination. He simply put an old idea to new use.

Likewise, the refrigerator railroad car was born when a meat-packer, limited by shipping distance, envisioned turning a boxcar into an oversized icebox. George Pullman’s sleeping car came from the same principle: beds plus trains.

“There was nothing new about either beds or boxcars,” said Carnegie, “but combining them created fortunes — and thousands of jobs. Such ideas are the offspring of imagination allied with initiative.”

Section VII — Stimulation of the Imagination

Hill: What success principles are most often allied with imagination?

Carnegie: It depends on the person and purpose — but generally, these:

A. Definiteness of Purpose.
The strongest motive stimulating imagination is desire for gain. The profit motive has built industrial America.

B. The Mastermind Principle.
When men meet in harmony and share ideas, imagination is awakened. Round-table councils solve problems no one mind could master alone.

C. Going the Extra Mile.
Those who habitually do more than they’re paid for must continually draw upon imagination to render new forms of service.

D. Applied Faith.
Faith stimulates imagination and is essential to creative imagination. Men without faith never receive its benefits.

E. Organized Individual Endeavor.
All definite planning depends upon imagination.

“When you pray,” said Carnegie, “do not ask for more blessings — ask for more wisdom to enjoy the blessings you already have.”

He continued:
Fear sometimes stimulates imagination — sometimes it paralyzes it.
Failure can stir imagination; so can curiosity, hunger, and self-expression.

Children, he said, should be encouraged early to express their thoughts — for expression develops imagination.

Section VIII — Imagination in Sales and Leadership

Hill: Since everyone must use salesmanship in some way, how can imagination be applied in selling?

Carnegie: Let me illustrate.
A life-insurance agent, crippled by accident, decided to sell insurance. Within a year, he led the nation in sales.

One day he entered the office of a famous lawyer — known for refusing every other agent. Within thirty minutes he had a signed application for a million-dollar policy.

How? Through imagination.

He brought a mock newspaper story, typeset and illustrated, with the headline:

“Prominent Lawyer Insures His Brains for a Million Dollars.”

The story praised the lawyer’s achievements and included photos of his family and estate. The agent said, “I’ve arranged for this story to be released to more than a hundred newspapers — the moment you pass your medical exam.”

The lawyer, flattered, read it twice — and signed. The salesman sold not a policy on his life, but an insurance policy on his vanity.

Three months of imaginative preparation made that half-hour sale possible.

Another Example: Dr. Harper’s Million-Dollar Endowment

Carnegie: Consider Dr. Harper, former president of the University of Chicago — one of the greatest endowment-getters in educational history.

He needed a million dollars for a new campus building. His imagination devised a perfect plan.

He approached two wealthy Chicago men — bitter enemies. One was a politician, the other owned the city’s street-railway system. He visited the streetcar magnate first.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “that the University of Chicago should honor you for giving the city the finest street-railway system in America. I proposed naming a building after you — but a board member suggested naming it for your rival. I came only to inform you of this.”

He then excused himself and left.

By morning, the streetcar man appeared at the university with a check for one million dollars. The building would bear his name.

That, said Carnegie, is salesmanship through imagination at its highest.

Section IX — The Difference Between Imagination and Creative Vision

Hill: Was Dr. Harper’s success due solely to imagination, or did other factors enter in?

Carnegie: He used Creative Vision, not imagination alone.

Hill: What is the difference?

Carnegie: Creative Vision is an acquired ability through which a man:

1. Recognizes opportunities favorable to his aims.
   
   

2. Embraces and acts upon them through organized endeavor.
   
   

A man may have keen imagination in art or invention, yet lack the vision and initiative to commercialize his skill. Many inventors fail for this reason.

Creative Vision overlaps nearly all the principles of individual achievement:

1. Alertness of Mind — to recognize opportunity.
   
   

2. Definiteness of Purpose — to move decisively.
   
   

3. Organized Endeavor — to plan each move.
   
   

4. The Mastermind Principle — to use the knowledge of others.
   
   

5. Applied Faith — to remove limitations and open the mind to Infinite Intelligence.
   
   

6. Going the Extra Mile — to attract opportunity.
   
   

7. Sensitivity to People and Conditions.
   
   

8. Personal Initiative.
   
   

9. Self-Reliance and Responsibility.
   
   

10. Use of Both Synthetic and Creative Imagination.
    
    

“Notice,” said Carnegie, “imagination itself is only one-tenth of Creative Vision.”

Section X — The Ten Factors of Creative Vision

Carnegie (concluding):

“All normal men use imagination in some measure, but few use Creative Vision.
Industrial America was built by those who did.”

Such men, he said, build wealth in its highest form — employment, education, and civilization itself.

They are the builders, not the destroyers.
They gave us the telephone, the airplane, the skyscraper, the automobile, and the electric light.
They built the very framework of democracy.

“Creative Vision,” said Carnegie, “is the forerunner of civilization. It is what raised America through men of purpose — Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and those who risked life and fortune for liberty. Motive is the mainspring of all endeavor.”

From the Desire for Freedom came the Republic.
From the Desire for Wealth came Industrial America.
From the Desire for Self-Expression comes every work of genius.

And through them all runs one immutable truth:

To get more from life, one must give more.

Men of Creative Vision extend their service — they never limit it.
They go the extra mile.
They embrace the law written by nature and echoed in the American Constitution:
that liberty, initiative, and reward belong to those who dare to think — and act.