I know a person who comes very close to asking to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before he discusses any of his ideas.

He believes that

a. his ideas are very valuable – that they will make a lot of money.

b. Others may not get such good ideas – and, therefore, probably will steal his ideas.

To the saying “ideas are dime a dozen” he argues that every single venture starts with an idea.  He says his ideas are extraordinary.

Here is an example.  I tell you that I am going to produce an Opera and ask if you are interested in investing in the project. You say that you are not interested. Then I tell you that it is going to be written by Luciano Pavarotti and if he is going to star in it. Will you be interested? A relatively simple idea of producing Opera has become multi-million dollar idea now, he says. All we need to do now is to implement the idea. That’s why he says his ideas are very valuable.

I’ve a few issues with this:

1. Implementation is the hard part.

2. I’ve seen plenty of ‘idea man’. Almost everyone seems to think they are an idea person – I am one of them! But ideas are of no use unless they are implemented.  They say ‘An ordinary idea executed well is better than a brilliant idea executed poorly’.  The execution is the key. Remember, even if someone ‘steals’ the idea, they may not be able to execute.

3. I share my ideas without hesitation (not because they have no value J). This sharing helps me

a. come up with one or two ideas that I can implement – perhaps based on the feedback I get. Certainly I can’t implement all the ideas I get.

b. come up with more ideas. If I keep an idea and don’t want to share it, my mind seems to be stuck on just that idea (and create some variations of that idea) rather than creating more ideas laterally or horizontally.

c. increase my credibility.

As a person who gets 100 ideas a minute, I used to drive some of my staff crazy in the early days.  Now I believe in “Just Do It”

If you are an ‘idea man’, try becoming ‘implementation man’!