Don't Tell Everyone About Your Ideas!
Advice For Underdogs
THE COMPETITION FOR IDEAS
→ BRAIN GAIN
I hear stories like this a lot from colleagues: “I got this great idea and then my boss stole it from me.” “Really, how did he do that?” I replied, “did he perform neurosurgery on your skull and removed the idea from your brain?”
We all know he didn’t; in fact, most people volunteer and give away their most precious ideas for free. They don’t have to.
→ BOSSES
There’s a pattern at work. Shamelessly, your boss, professor, director… uses the company’s resources to build a new project around “his” new idea. Next, he gets all the recognition and accolades and is congratulated on his vision and foresight. Soon he is going to be featured big time by the media. Naturally, that boss has to find a way to silence you. In fact, he is almost obliged to get rid of you. The boss abused you; he degraded you and now has zero respect left for such a complete loser.
→ UNIVERSITIES
Most companies these days milk their staff for ideas like cattle. So do universities. So next time you go into a “brainstorming session” with your group leader, don’t give away your most precious ideas just yet.
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In academia, especially in the humanities, which are all about thought, creativity, and inventiveness, this is absolutely crucial: You must be fish about your research findings until you’ve found a safe way to own your intellectual property.
→ MENTORS
Ideally, your mentor should be much older than you. Old age made him altruistic and benevolent in character. Maybe he is family. Good for you. He may even offer patronage and promise to kindly acknowledge you in a footnote or make you the third co-author. And didn’t he just mention you by your first name during that last meeting? But ask yourself, can you be so sure…
→ SOLITUDE
So now we know that successful and resourceful entrepreneurs snatch ideas away from their more creative but ultimately dull, dependent and weak fellow men all the time. So do most top academics and journalists, by the way. That’s why great genius prefers to absorb their environment for inspirations but keeps silent about his own work that is discretely composed in solitary. Successful artists, writers, mathematicians, and entrepreneurs are all like closed books.
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→ BE DOING
Whether we are dilettantes or professionals; whether we are academics, entrepreneurs, or apprentices: If we were to make a profound discovery or if we had a unique business idea, and if we thought that to be a golden opportunity for us and our career, just to be on the safe side we wouldn’t tell everyone about it. We simply do it, before we talk about it, no? Because if we had carelessly given away our ideas, and too soon, they may be lost, and maybe forever.
Totally great advice! Many ideas that I have shared with people I thought I could trust ended up costing me a lot of money, potential earnings, wasted time and mental anguish. I realize that most of the fault lies with me since I trusted people too much. So the takeaway is, it’s best not to trust people so much and definitely don’t share ideas with anyone.
Well said! But that doesn't just apply to bosses. You should also never tell your overprotective parents about your life plans, otherwise they'll quickly talk you out of it or try to manipulate you for years. And you definitely shouldn't tell your wife everything. She'll belittle you and tell all her friends and the cleaning lady, and then if you fail you'll be left standing there forever embarrassed. It's not for nothing that they say: Silence is golden.