NO ONE IS GOING TO STEAL YOUR BRILLIANT IDEA.

May 11, 2007

I get emails occasionally from one-person-software-companies, and those who are thinking of creating small software companies. (Micro-ISV's we call them)

And i give help where i can, positivity where-ever possible. i don't give much time, of course. But i give everything i can. (Oh, And i'd love to hear from you, of course! i've always got a positive word or ten!)

But one thing i hear again and again is this:

how can i get started, when my idea is so clever that the first time i utter it, i fear someone will steal it?

This is such a common fear!

And boy, I have had that fear! I know it so damn well. Yet -- it's utterly misguided!

please believe me!

no one is gonna steal your idea....

It's amazing how reluctant people are to use your brilliant ideas. This point is brought up again and again in literature around business creation. We all fear that everyone will steal our idea the entire time -- no one does. The hard bit -- the hardest bit of all -- is getting people to even listen to our idea. There's a famous saying about this:

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."

(quoted here, http://www.rexruff.com/content/philosophy.php, for example -- but lots of variations exist too)

There's so much truth in this. I always just put my ideas out on my blog, and no one steals them. (Damn you all! Except you, Atli. You rock of course ;-) )

So repeat after me (and keep repeating until you believe it)

NO ONE

IS GOING

TO STEAL

YOUR BRILLIANT

IDEAS.



It's almost sad, really.

But don't let this discourage you, either.

Because, over time... eventually... once you get to a stage where nice, ordinary people have begun to except your idea... (this might blow you away right now)

they'll actually

pay you

money

for your

implementation

of it.



Weird huh?

And yet it is a verifiable fact.

Best of luck!

lb

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.