...Like a Genius
By Kevin Hogan
The very smartest (and wealthiest) people I know take notes. They doodle. They draw. They think out loud. They do everything except sit back and watch only as an observer of reality. Instead they participate.
Invariably they use paper, ink or perhaps the most powerful of all tools...the back of a napkin.
Imagine two people sitting next to each other at a seminar.
One person watches the seminar "happen."
Another person takes notes profusely.
They asterisk ideas they will implement.
They highlight information they have never seen before.
They draw a key next to stuff they want to come back to and look into more.
They make extensive lists of what they are thinking and observing.
And as ideas are triggered in their brain throughout the weekend, they make notes and draw images of all those "aha's" as well.
Then there is the other guy.
He sits back.
He is polite.
He switches between judging the presenter, thinking he could do better and wondering if the gal will ever give him an idea that is worth a damn.
He checks the cell several times for that important call he can't take in the seminar room.
Both participants walk out at the end of the weekend.
One month later, each person is in a conversation with a person at lunch.
"What did you learn? Did you like it? Was she any good? Was it worth the money?"
The person who took no notes, drew no images, wrote down no ideas remembered the event as "OK" and "mildly entertaining where nothing happened of import."
Meanwhile, the other guy came back with a book full of notes.
And here is the KEY: It doesn't matter whether the gal at the front of the room was any good or not. The seminar may not have been worth $1 out of the $5,000 paid BUT the guy who took the notes came up with 40 ideas for new methods and strategies that were TRIGGERED by the gal at the front of the room...including those where he thought, "That's stupid, I'd do it the exact opposite." He wrote that down, implemented HIS STRATEGY triggered from her errant strategy and while she may have been worth a $1, his notes are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I have old journals of notes that I took from "early" NLP Trainers. Lots and lots and lots of pages of notes. 80% of it is worthless. 20% is pure gold. To this day those notes trigger cool ideas in business, in selling, marketing, promotion, networking, motivation and on and on.
Similarly I have hundreds of pages of notes from seminars of Zig Ziglar, Robbins and a bunch of the other speakers who influenced my work.
I thank the heavens they never handed out transcripts or made them available for download.
The transcript of anything that matters is like a curse of death.
It misses all the value of the material presented.
You don't hear the tone of voice so you don't get the triggered idea. You don't see the speaker so you miss the knowing smile on his face. You don't see the audience response and know that when you present similar material it might be worth having a story like THAT ONE.....and...you don't catch the audience response to where the speaker's story died and the material was dry and dull and useless.
With a transcript, it all looks the same.
You learn perhaps 10 -20% as much from a transcript from a live event as you do from your own linear notes and mind mapping.
I like both approaches.
Today I want to show you how to mind map. Next go 'round I want to show you how to think in a brilliant linear fashion.
Merge the two together and you think like a genius.
You should know that I had nothing to do with the development of mind maps. To some extent, creative minds for millenia have used mind maps. That's how people put information on paper or in the sand.
Mind Mapping formally was made replicable by Dr. Edward Tolman after World War II. Then about 20 years later, Tony Buzan made the concept famous.
A lot of the hype around mind mapping as a tool to enhance memory and all that was simply that, hype. BUT the value of note taking in a way that triggers ideas, strategies, fresh approaches, nuances to old thoughts and considerations...THAT is of inestimable value.
When should you use mindmaps? ... 
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Kevin Hogan
Network 3000 Publishing
16526 W. 78th St. #138
Eden Prairie, MN 55346
(612) 616-0732
Coffee cup photo appears under license with Stockexpert. Article photo appears under license with istockphoto/hidesy.
