When I was 8 years old I had two friends who lived nearby – Liz and Margaux. We were close in age and spent a lot of time together. We were incredibly imaginative, creating fictitious worlds that existed for years or sometimes just hours. Our many worlds each had unique qualities such as altered gravity, dangerous foes, or special rules of communication. The best part was that these worlds, although detailed and incredibly real to us, existed entirely in our minds.

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When Liz and I conjured a world, we knew which super powers we had. Sometimes we could fly, turn invisible, talk to grownups without them knowing we were kids, see through walls, the list goes on.

We knew the rules; we knew which neighbor’s yards were to be avoided and which were “friendly.” We knew the fictitious history of the world too. There were terrible battles fought, blood spilled, and enemies were all around. As we walked down our suburban street in the summer sun we discussed the significance of the history and how it shaped our (imagined) world.

When children engage in collective imagination it’s exactly the same process that adults use to collaborate on previously undefined projects such as creating a startup.

My old memories came flooding back to me while I was on the phone with my mom the other day. I was describing the magic of creating a new startup. I was trying to find an analogy so she could understand what it was like to sit in a room with...         READ MORE