Some step from this mortal coil without anyone barely noticing. Others leave legacies which stay long after their departure. Tony Buzan (76), inventor of mind-mapping, falls very definitely into the second group. He passed on earlier this month after a heart attack.
My direct exposure to this ever-cheerful soul was in 1993 when we ended up in the same Davos hotel. So engaging was his personality that we soon breakfasted together. And when literally nobody else arrived for his press conference, I got a first hand tutorial on a process which changed my life.
Ten years ago, in an in-studio interview during one of his many visits to South Africa, Buzan explained that mind-mapping was created after he studied 100 historical geniuses. Leonardo, Edison, Elizabeth I and other super-gifted beings, he discovered, did their thinking in full-colour images, not words.
That discovery spurred him into designing a process everyone can use – and in that 2009 interview Buzan said more than 250 million people actually do. Brilliance, he always maintained, is not about genes or environment, but the way your brain is trained. Farewell Tony. From a lifelong fan.
From Biznews community member Robert Burke
I hadn’t heard of Tony’s death until reading the BizNews article.
In the 1980s I attended an annual conference of a client company, held in Amalfi, and we started a whole day of mind mapping with Tony. It was interesting to see how the assembled executives advanced from regarding it with amusement at the start (including juggling with tennis balls) to taking it very seriously as the day progressed. Tony stayed on for the further four days of the conference so we had the pleasure of socialising with him and hearing much more about his methods. Above all he was a very charming and engaging character and I have never forgotten those few days.
Thanks for your article. May he rest in peace.
