The Myth of People Stealing Your Ideas
Nov 04
Occasionally my friends and I run into people who have ideas about businesses and are either feeling things out or trying to find people to execute their idea. It usually goes something like this:
I have this idea, but I can’t really tell you until you sign this NDA. Or I have this idea but we really can’t tell you anything other than it’s a Facebook killing social network. The reason we can’t tell is because you might steal our idea.
Unless your idea is geolocation and checkins and you already have millions of users and you are sitting in Yelp or Facebook’s office, I think most people are not going to care.
From my personal standpoint I rarely care about other people’s ideas. It’s not that they are bad ideas, although some are. It’s just that I am way too busy with my own ideas. Ideas are just that – ideas. Without someone to breath life into them day after day, it’s really not worth much.
Think about it. If ideas are worth that much, there would be a marketplace where people sell and buy ideas. I am not talking about patents since those are more than ideas but are blueprints. But people don’t do that. People buy companies and own stocks in companies because companies execute and produce profits.
It’s really the execution of the idea that matters. I may have the idea of creating a social network or a geolocation based checkin, but there are tons of other companies with the same idea. What differs is the execution of the idea, and the victor more often than not, out executes and out maneuvers the competition.
Do you think Groupon cares that much about someone like you or me “stealing” their idea of group deals? Unless I have 600 sales people pounding the pavement, an email list of millions of people, and the manpower to create a platform like they have, they are not too worried about me.
Here’s what Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint.com has to say about ideas and execution:
I went around and talked to as many people as I could about this idea. A lot of people, when they come up with a business idea, they keep it inside. They don’t want anybody to “steal” their idea. I think that’s a horrible idea. I think you should tell everyone and anyone your idea, without fear that they’re going to steal it. It’s all in the execution. A good idea is really a dime a dozen.
I think the most radical world changing ideas are so out there that the average person cannot see the possibilities of it. I still meet people who don’t get Twitter.
I think Howard Aiken, the original conceptual designer of the IBM Harvard Mark I computer, said it best:
Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.
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Nov 05, 2010 @ 07:16:24
I couldn’t agree more! There are 2 issues here – lack of experience with acting on ideas in general and the Facebook Effect.
Most people are not entrepreneurs or work in an environment where creative thinking is fostered, nurtured and allowed to come into being. Therefore they don’t know how to objectively analyze the idea, let alone what to do with it. Then they hear stories about how ideas may have been taken and made into billions as Facebook, so they get all worried, go to LegalZoom and get an NDA template.
mp/m
Nov 06, 2010 @ 16:55:38
‘ideas without action are usually called “dreams”’ http://bit.ly/demP89
Nov 14, 2010 @ 16:43:53
What I think is slightly ironic is that I read something just like this back in September… hah. http://fretbuzzblog.com/2010/09/10/someone-stole-my-idea-why-it-doesnt-matter/
Nov 16, 2010 @ 11:38:43
Took Skype founders years to sell the idea of Skype. Years. No one was interested. Totally agree. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution and follow through are everything. In fact, the business world is filled with people who do just that, wait for initial ideas to be mediocre, and then win through execution. (Apple?) You have to be great at the latter.
Nov 16, 2010 @ 11:47:02
Just finished Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen. He preaches the importance of community in bringing ideas to fruition. Worth a read. Nice post.
Nov 16, 2010 @ 12:18:53
Great ideas are cheap, until you’re handed 100 bad ones. I agree that 90% is in execution, but the conventional wisdom of the day is it’s all execution and ideas are free. That the more ideas you throw out, the more ideas that will come back to you. This is true on creative teams of any size with equal contributors, where the constant exchange just builds and morphs into something better. In the ad industry, it’s called ‘concepting’ and it happens every day as the engine of agencies.
Yes, when you throw out ideas, they come back to you. Throw out an idea in a meeting, watch it come back a week later out of someone else’s mouth. It’s not intentional, it’s just that ideas – naturally – take on a life of their own when they’re out there. People forget sources. So ideas need to not only be shared, but also protected. It’s not impossible to do both.
I find those who promote *openly* sharing ideas without ownership tend to be those who contribute the least amount of ideas. Those who conduct brainstorms tend to throw in the fewest ideas. In many creative departments, they’re called ‘idea farmers.’
Instead, they might be great ‘curators’ or farmers of ideas, but too often, they disregard sources by thinking ‘ideas come from anywhere.’ This is not true, as any great creative director/manager knows. Ideas come from ‘somewhere’, and that’s a key distinction.
Nothing will get your key contributors to clam up faster than to not acknowledge this, or to not reward them for contributing.
I speak from experience, not theory. I witnessed this firsthand as Creative Director of ZAG at BBH NY. Before taking the reigns, all NY-based projects had stumbled when they reached the moment of creative execution. Most creatives, experienced in ‘open brainstorms’ and creative credits that tend to ‘go missing’ were understandably skeptical about contributing work and ideas into a new model. But once we changed the open call for new ideas, reworded the proposal in a way that promised ‘ownership’ of their idea (even fractional) – the creative input increased dramatically and led to new agency partnerships.
I attribute this to what many of of the bestt creative directors have always known: respect the source. Quantity is not equal to quality. The talent you work with is your engine. Trust must be earned by key contributors, in order to produce the highest yield of quality ideas. Just as a farmer respects the seed. Selfishly chase only the bounty, and you will lose that seed.
As a CD, managing a pool of talent, the key is to get everyone to contribute openly and selflessly to move the project to new planes. Yet the error of many organizations is…first, believing that people are selflessly motivated. Second, that ideas come equally from all sources. And third, that contributors – without any diligence to tracking source – will naturally be credited. None of this is true unless on a very well-run, small team with diligent trust or tracking.
I am not at all saying people that shouldn’t share ideas. Sharing is paramount to cross-pollination and is the foundation to any well-run creative machine. But I am saying that those ideas need to be protected, and key contributors need to be respected. Especially in industries where ideas and the quality of idea-generating engines are what separates you from everyone else.
Share idea. But also, respect them.
Nov 16, 2010 @ 13:37:00
But, what would happen if you tell your idea -lets say, by accident- to an action person? If you dont´t have the resources to make it real in a short period of time you have nothing. It´s about execution, yes, but it´s about money too! An spirited person becomes succesful once he finds finacial support to build his idea.
Nov 16, 2010 @ 18:56:09
Yeah, dreams. And execution without proper ideas are called “nightmares”.
Nov 16, 2010 @ 21:08:20
Grace,
I guess I’m not the only one who has this sentiment. I feel like I have this sort of discussion with other entrepreneurs all the time.
Bernatom,
I think it’s false to believe that an idea can only be realized with capital infusion. Many businesses, especially website ideas can be bootstrapped. Also, being first to market doesn’t always translate to instant success. Look at Facebook, iPod, Google. None of these products were first to market. An idea person who keeps his idea to himself but never executes is sure to encounter a lot of moments where they go, “That was my idea.”
Nov 22, 2010 @ 06:01:43
stephen johnson’s TED talk is worth a watch. sharing is good.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html
Dec 08, 2010 @ 14:32:14
When I headed up a marketing innovation team at a global FMCG I shared a set of personal beliefs with every new team member. One of the key ones, central to our innovation role was:
“An idea is worth nothing unless you do something with it”
It’s wonderful to have people inside organisations generating breakthrough ideas but they are worthless unless you do something with them. It is all in the actioning and execution of the ideas – to whatever end – without that are ‘just’ ideas doing nothing to move the business forwards.
Dec 15, 2010 @ 20:27:33
Some people have had their Ideas/concepts stolen by government, and not just people.
Some wont play without the pay.
Getting depressed now, Vivaldi time.
Mar 09, 2011 @ 19:43:48
Brilliant.