When most people talk about vision, e.g. “this is my vision for the future”, they talk about the way they see the world in a couple of years. It looks like they took some kind of time machine and jumped years ahead and then described what was around them. But this is only in their mind. And this is actually great, because that means they are dreamers ! They can imagine how the world can be different from today’s reality and see new opportunities for us! And this is how change begins!

But are those people necessarily visionaries? Well, Let me say I doubt it. Having a vision starts by seeing a different future but is mainly shaped by knowing how to get there.

People saw for decades that one day we could fly over the air. But it took a visionary, Leonardo Da Vinci, to know how this could be possible. A little more recently, in 2003 Nokia saw that a phone could be much more than a phone and created the N-Gage which was a phone and a gaming device at the same time. Failure! I still remember people saying that a phone could only be a phone. Well, it took a few years to admire Apple launching the iPhone which didn’t have only the function of a phone and a game device but much more! And it worked perfectly. Nokia and Apple probably envisioned the same idea but certainly didn’t envisioned the same path to make this idea true!

So I don’t think you distinguish visionaries from others because they see a specific future. You distinguish visionaries from others because they know how to get there!

Please share your thoughts!