They Stole My Idea

A narrative of ideas and fear of losing them

Ideas are not scarce and in many cases, you don’t have a monopoly on them.

Your idea is brilliant, no doubt. Actually, not really, because the world does not reward ideas, the world rewards work, it rewards execution, it rewards generosity.

Although I’m not really of the school of thought that says — success is 99% execution and 1% idea, I believe ideas are important because they determine the quality of execution so you need great ideas. However, a bad idea executed properly will be more successful than a great idea executed poorly.

If you are thinking of something, chances are, someone else is thinking of it too, maybe a lot of people around the world, and guess who is more likely to be successful? The one that shares the idea most.

Share your idea with your chest

When you share ideas, you give them a chance to grow.

The very mistake you make is to protect your idea by not telling anyone, waiting for when you have the money, time, or whatever you think you need to execute it. In many cases, you never do! or do you?

The best way to protect an idea is to tell people. Tell people that will help you to execute it as fast and as good as possible.

When you tell people, some may try to talk you out of it, some may not believe in it but it’s only normal and you still have to try.

If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it. — Stan Lee

If your goals are generous, it’ll be hard for someone to steal your ideas, because, although they may solve the problem but not in the way you would and if they do, it doesn’t stop you, and if it does, you move on to the next idea because generous minds never lack ideas, ways to solve problems and make the world a better place

Stealing an idea is not as easy as you think and if you are ready to put in the body of work required to make it work, it’s even harder

Seth Godin says you can steal my ideas, but you have to promise to make it better.

Sounds stupid? Well, it’s not because so far, not many have, plus, he’s not in short supply of ideas.

When you share ideas, you open up opportunities, you get other people’s perspectives, contributions, teams, funding, etc.

The question is, are you willing to sacrifice all the help, experience, and perspectives you will get sharing for the safety of an idea you actually need these things for? Which in many cases, you never execute, because you didn’t share.

Stop protecting an idea that is not tested. The real test of its value is in the market, it’s with the users, so share and most importantly, execute it, generously.

I’ll write more about this tomorrow. It’s 11:34 pm and I’m sleepy. I hope you read