368 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
Success, no matter what may be one's concept of that term, is nearly
always a question of one's ability to get others to subordinate their
own individual interests and follow a leader. The leader who has the
Personality and the Imagination to induce followers to accept his or
her plans and carry them out faithfully is always an able leader.
The next lesson, Imagination, will take you further into the art of
tactfiiI Leadership. Leadership and Imagination are so closely allied and
so essential for success that one cannot be gainfi.tlly applied without the
other. Initiative is the moving force that pushes the leader ahead, but
Imagination is the guiding spirit that tells him or her which way to go.
Imagination is what enabled me to analyze the Lumberport bridge
problem, break it up into its three component parts, and assemble
those parts into a practical working plan. Nearly every problem may
be broken up into parts which are more easily managed, as parts,
than they are when assembled as a whole. Perhaps one of the most
important advantages of Imagination is that it enables one to separate
all problems into their component parts and to reassemble them in
more favorable combinations.
It has been said that all battles in warfare are won or lost not on
the firing line but behind the lines, through the sound strategy, or the
lack of it, used by the generals who plan the battles.
What is true of warfare is equally true in business, and in most
other problems that confront us throughout life. We win or lose
according to the nature of the plans we build and carry out, a fact
which serves to emphasize the value of the laws of Initiative and
Leadership, Imagination, Self-Confidence, and a Definite Chief Aim.
With the intelligent use oj these jour laws, one may build plans,Jor any
purpose whatsoever, which cannot be difeated by any person or group oj persons
who do not employ or understand these laws.
There is no escape from this truth. Organized effort is effort that
is directed according to a plan that was conceived with the aid of
Imagination, guided by a Definite Chief Aim, and given momentum