I am an idea person, I have them all the time, and I also have a lot of "lists". After finally re-writing my list for the 1000th time, I thought, there must be a better way. There must be a way to organize my thoughts (like I see them), and then use that information for other uses.

For example, to send a list of things to do to an employee, or to organize a meeting agenda, without re-typing, reprocessing everything. As I started to think I could see that a few things would be super important in such a tool. They were:

1. Easy and natural to use, so it was quicker to use than pad and paper (eventually).
2. It could prioritize things and keep me on track for my highest priority tasks without losing track of those things which could be delayed/defered.
3. It must be able to show the information in many different formats, and be able to export and use other Microsoft tools in a natural and non-geeky way.
4. I also wanted to link actual or potential resources to an idea so I could start to see what or who I needed as resources to accomplish a certain goal.

So I set out, to find the best/value in software for mind mapping. I tried over 15 products, all trying to accomplish the same basic mind map with the above criteria. Many of the tools did well, many of them were cheap and provided a lot of value (calculated appropriately), but in the end I found one product that made my dreams come true. This product solved my problems quickly and naturally in such a way that I was able to in 24 hours get rid of 95.63% of the paper notes I carried around all the time.

The product I chose was Mindjet MindManager, and for under $500 it was amazing. It not only had a reliable, clean, and robust interface that met all the MS Office standards, but it also did everything I wanted plus more. In less that 1 day, I was able to define all my own priorities, my own resources, and my own categories so that I literally can mindjet my products, with my own structure. 

Importantly, the online training was great - I watched the videos and learned how to use the package and some special features right out of the gate. In less than 20 days, I was able to recoup all the money I invested in this mind mapping software and the rest is just "frosting on the mind cake".