From Nothing to $$ Millions
God, Startups and the Imagination
Imagine this. Beginning with little more than the imagination and the spark of an idea, startup founders might eventually experience a liquidity event: a sale of their company, or an IPO, worth millions to hundreds of millions of dollars. Hard to comprehend all that money arising from an invisible and formless thought process. I am amazed by it, and it is my experience as a startup founder.
Certainly, it takes immeasurable effort and resources to advance ideas. Yes, discoveries are things that might come before the startup idea. And yes, of course, many such ideas come to nothing. But it is the extraordinary gift of imagination, that capacity to imagine, that we might find worthy of our conversation, here.
Going from nothing but the imagination, to valuations in the hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars, is a form of creation. Wealth creation, in this case. And it can flow down to multiple people in the startup, as well as its investors. Now, many of us, upon hearing of a liquidity event, take it all in stride. After all, it is what startups are about, we could think to ourselves. But we might allow ourselves to look for something deeper in this creation process.
In the act of imagining, the mind untethers itself from its surrounding physical environment. Instead, we enter a mental realm beyond our five senses. The mind’s playground, if you will. But, more than just a playground, essential activity occurs in the imagination: the spark of ideas, creative problem solving, even imagining how another person may be feeling, and more.
…“To infinity and beyond!”
We all know the literal version of the startup is not in the imagination. Its address is down the street in the startup accelerator. But the seed of the business, in the form of neural activity, connectivity and stored memories, is quite real. Also true is that the imagination’s necessary separation from the environment has no apparent limit or boundary. How far can you or I extend our thoughts beyond our surroundings and even our physical bodies? Buzz Lightyear of Star Command says it well: “To infinity and beyond!”.
We might ask, what of daydreaming? Daydreaming can employ the imagination, but the form of imagination I am describing is different than daydreaming (although daydreaming can sometimes lead to it). I am referring to a more directed pattern of imagination. Unlike daydreaming, this directed form requires intention.
The imagination can spontaneously ignite when we begin to ponder an issue, or seek some answer. But we have to intentionally, even if subtly, avoid shutting it out; the imagination must be allowed to work as we reason our way toward some outcome. Some of us shut it prematurely, consciously or otherwise. Others may choose to avoid it altogether — for those issues about which they are unwilling to change their minds (think politics and religion).
…this cognitive ability has enabled humanity’s progress from hunter gatherer to a global, light speed society.
Ultimately, of course, we have to intend or be willing to pursue an imagined outcome if we want to manifest it. Startups and liquidity events do not happen on their own.
Having the capability to imagine, the use of a faculty that can be intentionally directed toward some creative outcome, is a result of our highly evolved and elaborate brains. Over millennia and through innumerable steps and outcomes, this cognitive ability has enabled humanity’s progress from hunter gatherer to a global, light speed society.
It also plays a role on an everyday personal level: We can imagine (and pursue) a better self or life changes for ourselves and others. However, something else, maybe very important, is also possible.
From where do we connect with our invisible God, the Universe or Divine, or whatever we call it? The Pew Research Foundation tells us that approximately 90% of the world’s population follows some form of deity or deities; some invisible force with which we commune and worship. We seek answers and help, healing and closeness. Make me a better person, save my mom, help my startup(!). As we all know, we seek many things, especially when we are struggling and facing challenges.
We might ask ourselves, could our ability to connect, to commune in the “silence” with our deity, arise from the mind’s ability to detach from the surrounding environment? Might that detaching allow us to enter the deep realm of the imagination — the same general faculty that enables the spark of a startup idea?
In this realm, distanced from the five senses, we can manipulate our thoughts and feelings, moderate our normal rational and judgmental selves, and believe what want. As far as I can tell, the still small voice connects with us through our imaginative capability.
With all the good, and potential for good, arising from our imaginative capability, why do we sometimes, maybe too often, forsake it?
It is my first liquidity event, an IPO, and I am excited about advancing the business and the long-awaited mushrooming of my bank account.
The enthusiasm continues for a time, and it also transforms into practicality: enacting my plans for the cash. But truth be told, something else is happening that I had not anticipated.
After the liquidity event, I am doing pretty good on many fronts in my life. I suppose you might expect my life to be easier now with less struggle and burden, and you would be right. In this circumstance, I am not seeking answers or help, really.
But now, without realizing it, my awareness seems to be on the world around me; I mostly neglect my faculty of imagination. Worse, I forsake my close relationship with the Divine (trust me, there was lots of beseeching and forward gratitude in my communing with that Divine before the liquidity event). But, now, what do I need? I am good.
They were sated with their material possessions and found little desire to wander, imaginatively.
It is clear, I am oblivious. And it would be some time before I understand what was happening.
After some years, and another liquidity event, I am attending a workshop. My attention is captured by a comment from the contemporary author Carolyn Myss. She says Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, was frustrated with the English aristocracy at the time because he felt they were stifling their imaginations. They were sated with their material possessions and found little desire to wander, imaginatively. I do not know if that is true, but I am sure the same thing happened to me. Some corroborating evidence would soon fall into my lap and convince me of it.
After the second liquidity event, I unconsciously repeat the same behavior from the first one. But, as life can go, I eventually find myself, once again, seeking; maybe I think I am struggling. I unconsciously rekindle the embers of my imagination out of apparent need. But there is something different about it.
I have long used my imagination as a child and student, later as an entrepreneur and inventor, and in my connection with the numinous. But now, for whatever reason, I become emphatic about engaging it.
The details of my imaginings are not relevant, here. Instead, what I am trying to say is that my heightened imagination seemed to be signalling me: my behavior strikes me as unusual and, like a wildly waving flag, I suddenly notice it. And I begin to wonder why I have been so enmeshed in it (funny, I use my imagination to wonder about my imagination). While I cannot immediately explain it, a pattern begins to emerge.
…a “rich” person may not have the same drive for imagination….
In the next few moments, my imagination and memory serve me well — I recall something I heard a very long time ago:
…it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God…
I see the pattern. As far as I can tell, it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom — not because the wealthy are not worthy — but because a “rich” person may not have the same drive for imagination as the person who is struggling and seeking. Some of us are sated with our lives and have little desire to wander in our imaginations. It is what Carroll also discovered. It seems we become entangled in the physical world, unaware of our fading imaginations and, along with that — our connection with the Divine.
…maybe we can deepen our connection with what we believe is Divine.
Life is not so easy right now. Things changed quickly. Some of us are doing well, many of us are struggling. Our capacity to imagine, I am afraid, has lost ground to hardline thinking, among other things. If the imagination can germinate ideas that eventually morph into liquidity events, what other good might we imagine for the world? Struggling — or not — maybe we can return to the extraordinary gift of our imagination, maybe we can deepen our connection with what we believe is Divine.
We need more good in the world, perhaps now more than ever. Imagine that.
Russ Donda is a coauthor of the book The Believer’s Brain: Home of the Religious and Spiritual Mind. An inventor on 21 patents, he is a serial entrepreneur, translates science for a living, and serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence and board member for technology startups. He has new book in progress.