Galea and Vaughan Comment

The statement "Vision without execution is hallucination" is generally attributed to Thomas Edison and is a modification of an ancient Chinese proverb; it has gained currency in the private sector as a motivational, agenda-setting aphorism. The idea of this statement is that although vision is important and can set our sights, little is achieved without the hard work necessary, the step-by-step progress, toward achieving the vision. Although this may seem inarguable, it has often struck us in our professional experience how often the dots fail to be connected, how often vision is articulated without tactics rather than implemented to concretely move organizations toward that same vision. Indeed, serial expressions of vision and priorities without action create an environment of hopelessness rather than empowerment. This is a nagging preoccupation in some of our writing about a public health of consequence, featured regularly in AJPH since 20161 and referred to by McBride et al. in their article "Public Health of Consequence: Shifting the Cultural Narrative From Churning Grants to a Scholarship of Consequence".