IMAGINATION 433These are simple suggestions, involving no particular difficulty in
connection with their use, yet it is just such uses of Imagination that
bring financial success.
The Piggly-Wiggly self-help store plan, which made millions of
dollars for its originator, was a very simple idea that anyone could have
adopted, yet considerable Imagination was required to put the idea to
work in a practical sort of way.
The more simple and easily adapted to a need an idea is, the greater
is its value, as no one is looking for ideas that are involved with great
detail or are in any way complicated.
COMMENTARY
The billions of McDonald's hamburgers sold, the invention of Wite-Out by a
secretary, and the success of Mrs. Field's Cookies are stories that have been
cited so often as modern examples of a simple idea transformed by imagination
that they may have begun to lose some of their power to inspire. If that is so, the
story of Josie Natori's simple idea should once again ignite your imagination.
Raised in the Philippines, Josie Natori came to the United States to study eco-
nomics and had a successful career as an investment banker. But, she recalls, "I
was bored. It all came too easy. " She and her husband were mulling over starting
their own business, considering items they could import from the Philippines,
when a friend sent her some children's clothes with elaborate embroidery.
Natori took one look at the clothes and was inspired. The look might not work
for kids, but she knew it would be dynamite on women's lingerie. She began
creating her own designs and soon had orders from major department stores
like Saks and Bloomingdale's.
"From the beginning, " Natori told an interviewer, "I wasn't consciously trying to
challenge the established ideas of lingerie. I simply followed my instincts. I had no
preconceived ideas and asked questions that forced buyers to reconsider what [a
garmenlj should look like. I naturally asked questions like, 'Why can't a nightgown look
like an evening gown?' or 'Who says you can't wear these slippers with that dress?'"