I like nothing more than irony.

Especially, when it comes to business.

This post is all about pen and paper. The irony kicks in when I tell you I mindmapped this particular article in with iThoughts HD on my iPad. I then used Dragon Dictate 2.0 to get the bulk of the post typed in.I edited in Scrivner prior to uploading it to the blog.

Side note –I just recorded a lesson in [1][Challenge Plus] about this particular workflow. I’ve never ever been able to produce as much content as I have in the last seven days since adopting this particular strategy. Look out for the lesson soon.

At the Going Pro conference here in Melbourne, it’s was funny how different themes emerged.

One of the things I noticed among many of the speakers was the use of pen and paper when they were planning out their businesses.

We had presenter after presenter showing you the original and sketched drawings of what would eventually become very successful businesses.

Not one of them had a business plan.

None you would call a mind map.

There certainly were no GANTT charts and project management software anywhere to be seen.

Every single one of them had a pen and paper diagram.

It got me thinking.

I remembered way back in 2004 when I was travelling in Japan with John Reese and Frank Kern. We were travelling on the bullet train up from Kyoto heading back to Tokyo. I remember at one point John pulling out his yellow legal pad and vision elite pen. He looked up at me and simply said “It’s time to make some money.”

To this day John continues to do this in each new venture, each new piece of software, on a yellow legal pad and a pen. Equipment you can get from any office supplies store, newsagent, stolen from your children or any other place.

On the very same trip, Frank and I were at a “Seattle’s coffee” in Tokyo. We planned out the entire, what would become quite famous, “Underachiever Project” on pen and paper.

Actually, I remember Frank and I being quite embarrassed because we were so wrapped up in our planning when we looked up, we realised incredible Japanese service was in full effect.

It turned out that the coffee shop should’ve closed an hour before at 6 PM. They had all stayed there without even giving us the slightest indication they should have actually closed and been home an hour before.

We felt so guilty!

But yet again we planned on paper.

Last years “Challenge” for example was a massive departure from what we had done previously.

We got all the key players in from all over the planet to help us brainstorm that new change. Again while the room was full of Mac computers. We did the actual planning with pen and paper.

You might have seen the webinar Trey Smith and I did last month. We were talking about our development and the processes that we use to create applications for mobile devices and computers.

If you recall, we use pen and paper first to jot down all the ideas. We then start to use other tools like Keynote to flush out the ideas and get ready to brief the programming and design people.

If you can’t get out your app on paper. Then you have no business engaging a designer or a programmer. You don’t need to know how to program at all. But you do have to have a very strong vision of what you want your app to be.

The way I test mentoring students vision is to get them to draw out the entire App. It’s a great method. This way, you can easily see which buttons are ment to go where, you don’t miss screens, indeed, you’re actually able to count exactly how many screens you have. When you go to brief designers and programmers to get somebody to build your app it makes it so much easier because you are so specific.

You’ll save a huge amount of money doing it this way.

It’s interesting, the more successful you become, the more simplicity becomes important.

Too often, tools get in the way.

It’s not about the tool, it’s about what’s between your ears.

Using pen and paper gets the idea out from between your ears and out into the real world.

There’s something magical about getting your ideas down on paper. it goes from vague to several step towards being very real.

I keep remembering those drawings from the Melbourne Conference. Too often, people get so wrapped up in business plans, charts, and massive to-do lists they forget to clearly define what it is they are actually going to do.

Both the Best Screenwriters and the best salespeople live by this maxim…

“Show Don’t Tell”

Coming up with a business or an App idea should be all about “Show Don’t Tell”.

It is only a start.

The first step of “Going Pro”.

Let me tell you,

It’s a very good first step.

Ed