I’m protective of a lot of things in this world — life, liberty, justice, my desire to one day own a 150 foot tall tower filled entirely with Lindt chocolate truffles.
These things I would defend with my dying breath.
The one thing that I am absolutely not protective of, that I care as much for as the toilet paper I buy at the super market every week, is an idea.
Entrepreneurs get up in arms about their ideas, especially the younger ones who have not yet realized that the real work of business is getting rid of as many “ideas” as you can before they distract you into paralysis. They want to protect their brilliant musings with NDAs, hushed conversations over cafe lattes and generally hysterical intonations about market forces and penetration.
The truth of the matter is that the idea mongers in the audience are doing little more than wasting their time. Unless your “idea” amounts to dressed up arbitrage (a fancier way of saying gambling on your ability to time trends) then no matter how many times you tell it to me there is little chance that I will be able to execute on it as well as you can.
The only reason you should be trying to build a business from an idea is because you think that you are the best person for the job, that you have the skills, talent, time and intuition to do it better than your competition.
If the only thing keeping the world from swooping down on you and snatching away your millions is your ability to keep the idea from spreading, then you would be much better off taking your startup capital and enjoying a nice relaxing weekend in Vegas.
Who knows, you might just get lucky.
I’m glad nobody wants my ideas. Gives me the motivation to make them my own, and make them work!
That is very true. Ideas are cheap, it is in creating the foundations to making ideas profitable where the real creativity and ability lie.
150 foot chocolate tower? A man after my own heart.
I agree with Chris, you just need to be judicious about what and with whom you share ideas. However, the reality is that there are a lot of talkers and not a lot of doers out there. So even if you do share an idea, the changes are the person you are sharing it with does not 1) Have the needed context to fully understand your vision, or 2) Doesn’t have the interest, motivation, or discipline to put it together.
What I have found to be most effective is to create a circle of associates that you can bounce ideas off of. I have network of “idea buddies” that are entrepreneurs, attorneys, consultants, VC’s, plumbers, and house-moms – people who I trust and know are smart, forward-thinking people. Someone in the group will throw an idea out to, and we punch holes (and fix them), discover revenue streams, expand the idea, and overall judge the feasibility of an idea. It works very well.
Great article! I’m so tired of the cloak and dagger secrecy around ideas. Even if someone shares an idea, the chances that two people will execute it the same way are non-existent. I agree with Bessie, you stand a much better chance of improving your idea with feedback. Such a smart way to look at it.
The only time I advocate not sharing your idea with someone is if you know that they are typically a motivation killer (you know, the ones that find something bad in EVERYTHING). But that’s just on an individual level.
I am slowly getting over my fear of sharing ideas. But it makes sense to. There’s no sense in keeping ideas a secret. Chances are that it’s not even a good idea, so you might as well get feedback on it sooner rather than later.
Nice topic to read about. I totally agree. Odds are whatever your idea is happens to be out there already, and if it’s not your best off sending it out somewhere into the ethos to get feedback and make it an even better idea. Or like you say, get rid of some of those ideas and make room for the best ones.
Unfortunately I’ve seen people steal other people’s ideas and beat them to the punch, so yes, it is important to protect your ideas. That doesn’t mean every time you have some random conversation that you pull out the NDA, it means when you’re genuinely serious about turning your idea into capital that you protect it until it’s far enough off the ground to be earning you money and hold a case in court if necessary.
You’ve got to know when your idea is worth keeping to yourself and protecting and when it’s just a passing fancy.