Rory sat at his desk, adding machine with paper tape streaming to the floor.

“What’s up?” I said, breaking his concentration.

“Oh, man. I have to put a budget together, never had to do this before. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Where does any plan start?” I asked.

“In class, you said, we start with vision, painting a vivid picture of the future, but this is a budget. This is all numbers.” Rory was bordering on whining.

“You still start at the same place,” I said. “The first step is visualization. You have to imagine the colorful detail, the heat of the moment, the status of success, problems solved and the new capacities. It is only when you have a very clear picture of the future that you will remember the detail for all the things that go into the budget.”

The wheels were already turning. I was losing Rory in his own imagination. His eyes were tracing images of this picture inside his mind.

“The more detail in your vision, the more likely you will imagine the resources required to create that picture.” I backed out of the room. Rory was on his way.