Here's an idea...

How much money is an idea worth? I’m not going to beat around the bush here; the answer is “no pounds and zero pence”. An idea alone won’t make you any money and I’d be surprised if anyone ever actually bought an idea. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t make $12.5 Billon by having an idea for a social networking site; he got that money by being the person to actually create Facebook. How often have you heard someone say “That’s dumb; I could have though of that” or even “I came up with that idea years ago” swiftly followed by “I just didn’t bother to do it”. An idea on its own is worthless. It’s what you do with the idea that makes it valuable. I like this quote I recently read in Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s book, ReWork: “Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone’s got one of those.”

There are two things you can take away from this; the most obvious one being that, if you have a brilliant idea, actually do something about it. If you think your idea has legs, walk it a little and see where it takes you. You could make a fair bit of money from it. The other thing you should be getting from this way of thinking is that, if your ideas are worth nothing by themselves, why keep them to yourself? What are you afraid of? Thinking someone might do your own idea better? What if I travelled back in time with the music and lyrics for all the songs on the Beatles’ “White Album” and gave them to a contemporary of the Beatles before the Beatles came up with it themselves? Do you think anyone could have made that album as good, or better? Maybe. Would it have sold the same, or more? I doubt it. So much more goes into a thing than just a simple idea, so what do you have to loose by sharing it?

What if someone does do your idea better than you? Here’s a different example: Do you recognize these words adapted from a poem by Lori Lieberman:

“I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on”

How about the song they’re from?

How about the hit song that became?

Or it’s most famous cover?

Lori Lieberman had the music and lyrics for “Killing Me Softly” in 1971 but it wasn’t until 1973 when Roberta Flack’s soul cover was released that it became a hit. Surely this would be a good argument for keeping your ideas to yourself, right? Well, say that the original was never released; what would that accomplish? Lori Lieberman made money from her version (the version that many people prefer to this day) and also, presumably earned royalties from her lyrics. So it’s not Lori’s version that was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, it was never going to be. Did Roberta’s version detract from Lori’s? No, of course it bloody didn’t; it elevated it, and Lori still performs her version of the song today because of it.

To use an example from the ReWork book I mentioned above, chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey don’t make millions from guarding their recipes like they’re the freakin’ Da Vinci code. People don’t go out, buy their cookbooks and then open a competing restaurant across the road, because that’s ridiculous. You could never compete in that way. People might come up with better versions of the recipes from time to time; does that make them better chefs? Does it balls! They share their recipe, and it cycles around again. To make an idea work requires effort and/or skill. If you don’t have the skill and don’t want to put in the effort, stop being such a dog in a manger and share your idea.

The other thing to realise here is that whilst a good idea isn’t worth any money, it still has worth of a different kind. It’s probably easiest to explain like this: Imagine you run a bakery and you know that the reason your bakery’s produce is so much better than other bakeries is down to the specific way you make your products. The care taken in selecting ingredients, the skill with which things are made, and the way in which things are baked. Some people might taste the difference, and you might get better sales than your competitors because of that. Now, what if you made a reality TV series about your bakery? Do you think that would harm sales? Your customers now know exactly what goes into your products. They know what the ingredients are, and how much care and attention goes into everything you make. Surely that would boost sales. Your bakery’s name would become synonymous with baked goods. And your competitors? Your competitors will know some of your secrets and might change their recipes and processes accordingly, but who would know? How would anyone find out? They could make their own show, but now it’s nothing new. “Look! We slow proof our dough too!” who cares, so does your bakery. They might know your secrets, but they’re the ones catching up, you’re setting the standard. It’s not just about your competitors seeing you; it’s about being seen full stop. In this way, an idea can have value, but only if you share it.

You can cling to your ideas if you want. You can operate under cover, in the shadows and away from prying eyes that might ‘steal’ your ideas, but you know what happens to people who hide in the shadows; nobody sees them.