I’ve long been a fan of Steven Covey’s work. I’ll admit to being disappointed when he sold out to Franklin, now FranklinCovey, as the “First Things First” system he’d been detailing was a better approach. Still I understood the economics of it.

I’ve been a user of Franklin (now FranklinCovey) planners for almost a decade, now, but the end has arrived. My annual visits to the store have been more like pilgrimages, where in addition to the latest page packets I picked up some motivation to continue. But no longer.

You see, I’m moving farther into the digital age. My current phone does appointments and to-dos along with a contact list, and my next one will do even more along those lines. I live out of my laptop. Carrying a binder no longer fits in well with the way I travel and work. My laptop and cell phone now hold my life, retaining the paper is holding me back. Thing is, FranklinCovey doesn’t think I need to be electronic. At least not on my terms: they insist I buy another computer just for the priviledge of running their software.

Sorry, FranklinCovey. I may get exasperated with my MacBook occasionally, but since I’m a web developer (so I have to keep a Windows machine active to test for IE display eccentricities) and do some tech support for my church (which had Windows machines donated to it) I spend enough time every day with Windows to know that I’m not switching any time soon.

Time was when Franklin had a program for Mac (Ascend). The database engine behind it was a bit tempermental, but by and large it was at least acceptable. It was good enough that I’d be using it now if it were still available.

But it’s not. Instead Franklin has hitched its wagon to Microsoft. And since my main machine doesn’t have Microsoft software installed (I get along fine with Pages, Keynote and FileMaker, along with Open Office to fill in the gaps, all of which combined cost me less money than MS Office would have, and cost is definitely a factor with me) I can’t use it. There’s even precious little purpose to buying their Palm software, as it wouldn’t transfer up to my desktop, where I spend most of my time.

So that’s it. After a decade of my spending thousands of dollars with them, FranklinCovey has effectively fired me as a customer. All because I wouldn’t let them dictate what other tools I use in my professional life. Not only have they lost the planner sales, but all the ancillary ones I would make (such as books and tapes, shoulder bags, and other items) all of which I’ll be getting elsewhere now, because it’s no longer a case of “while I’m here…”