Last week, I was walking through Newark Airport on my way to my gate.

What I remember is the music. The soft echo of piano keys playing in the terminal. Not the usual boarding announcements. Not the rolling wheels of carry-ons.

The music.

As I got closer, I saw a traveler playing the piano. Backpack slung over one shoulder. Carry-on at his side. Sitting on a bench next to a full gate of people like he was playing in his own living room.

A random traveler sees a piano bench as an open invitation to play without judgment and for the pleasure of others. It's a bit of a gift that goes both ways.

Just playing. No stage. No permission required.

I thought — Who was the person who said, "What if we put a piano in the airport for random travelers to stop and play a tune?"

Who imagined dropping a full-size piano into the middle of a high-stress, high-efficiency, get-me-to-my-gate environment and believed someone would actually sit down and play?

The idea was likely met with resistance:

That's ridiculous...No one will use it...It won't work...Who would do it.

And yet… There it was.

And there we all were — a little calmer, a little more human, because someone exercised imagination instead of caution.

Here's what I know from spending decades inside high-performance cultures — and from living inside one myself:

High achievers don't lack effort. They lack a vividly imagined future.

We optimize. We maintain. We execute.

But imagination?

Imagination generates desire — it's a fuel source to a happier, more meaningful life.

It's what moves us.

It doesn't require creativity. You're not painting a canvas.

You dip into imagination simply by asking a What if? question — and allowing your brain to surface something new, then exploring it.

This can be hard. Our brains are wired to resist. To shut the question down before the next one can follow.

Most of us default to "How?"

How do we grow 10%? How do we optimize? How do we protect what we've built?

But "How?" locks the brain into logistics. It's a dream killer.

How forces the future to look like an extension of the past.

When you live from the past, you get more of the same. If you feel stuck right now — that's likely what's happening.

Leadership without imagination becomes maintenance. Leadership with imagination becomes movement.

Without imagination, leaders react. With imagination, they shape.

The piano in the airport wasn't a logistical upgrade. It was an imaginative one. It didn't make travel faster. It made travel feel different.

And that's what imagination does.

It doesn't always change the structure. It changes the experience. Even your emotional temperature.

Ask yourself: If nothing were holding me back, what's possible?

If you feel a slight tightening when you ask it that's not fear.

That's your most important muscle warming up.

Imagination stretches us before it strengthens us.

In this age of change and uncertainty, the future will reward those who pause for new possibility.

The What if? question does something entirely different.

What if we doubled?

What if I asked for that role?

What if I went for it?

What if this pressure isn't bad — but a signal of expansion? Pressure isn’t a problem. Pressure is an invitation.

Your brain answers the questions it's given.

Typically, we ask incremental questions. Future-led leaders ask disruptive ones.

Maybe that's how a piano ends up in an airport.

Someone asked a different question. Someone allowed for resistance — and then followed it with another What if? question.

Not, "How do we move people faster?"

But, "What if we made the stress of travel sound a little different?"

One question. One pivot.

That's where a vivid future begins.

Take my 5-minute assessment that takes the temperature on your awareness and imagination. You'll get a short report on where you can focus to bring more into your life! Go HERE.

Here's a bit of music inspiration....check out my 2026 playlist by clicking on the image.

Imagination is the Missing Skill

Hello Sunshine

Confidence is Not Required