While I was away on vacation I finished reading a book sent to me by the co-author, Hobie Swan, called The Cancer Code. The book tells the heroic story of Mike Jetter’s battle with leukaemia told through his own eyes and those of his wife, Bettina. 
It was when he went into his first of several relapses with the prospect of another two months cooped up in a sterile isolation room that he decided to use his time to develop MindMan, later to become MindManager. During this process, Mike found he recovered more quickly, and left him and Bettina beginning to service a growing business.
As I read this, I was reminded of Viktor Frankl’s observations in Man’s Search for Meaning, how often human beings can prevail through tremendous challenges if they live for some transcendent purpose - something beyond their immediate suffering. In Mike Jetter’s case, he wanted to leave some kind of software legacy.
The book also reminded me how truly ground-breaking the MindManager software has become. I go back to it now with a fresh appetite.
Finally, I noted the references in the book to my friend Nick Duffill, and how Mike and Bettina describe him as ‘scary smart’. And so he is. But I hadn’t realised he had made such a significant contribution to the Mindjet story.
So thanks, Hobie. I appreciated reading this inspiring story, and I would recommend it to others. (To my colleagues at Pearce Mayfield: my copy goes into the Pearce Mayfield library!)
I read TCC a few weeks afer meeting Mike at Mindjet late last year. MindManager is the result of a remarkable personal journey. It's an inspiring story I'd recommend to anyone.
http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2006/01/visiting_mindje.html
Posted by: RobiNZ | 19 July 2006 at 03:38 AM