[7] Papasan attended the University of Memphis where his roommate encouraged him to expand his vocabulary using word habits.

[6] After earning his degree in English and French, he traveled to France where he worked as a translator for two and a half years.

He returned from France to attend New York University, earning a master's degree from its graduate writing program.

[6] It was with Hirshey that Papasan published his first best-seller, Go For the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life by Mia Hamm.

[1] Papasan continued his writing career in 2007 when he collaborated with Rick Villani and Clay Davis on the book FLIP: How to Buy, Fix and Sell Homes for Profit.

The following year he co-authored Your First Home, again with Keller and Jenks,[9][10] and in 2009, the team wrote SHIFT: How Top Agents Tackle Tough Times, which was Nielsen BookScan's #1 Real Estate Book for 2009.

[12] Keller and Papasan published their first non-real estate book in April 2013, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.