Sharing is Caring — So Share Your Idea!

One of the biggest mistakes we make in life is convincing ourselves that our ideas are unique and ours alone. We rationalize keeping our ideas to ourselves because we are afraid that others will steal them, or worst — we believe our ideas aren’t good enough.

Our ideas are precious, but they aren’t that unique nor that precious. I am amazed at how many people have the same or similar ideas and believe that everyone else is copying their work. Over my career, I’ve seen very few times where someone stole an idea. Don’t let that fear hold you back.

While ideas are the catalyst for innovation, remember that ideas are not innovations. Innovation requires a team to take action on an idea for it to become an innovation.

If your brainchild has merit, you need others to help shape it into something bigger than what you could do by yourself. So go ahead and share your idea.

Sharing your ideas is like giving birth. It’s scary and vulnerable in the beginning, but once it’s out there, people can and will help nurture and grow it. And just like with a child, the more people who are involved in raising an idea, the better it becomes. So go ahead and share your idea — there’s no reason to keep it to yourself.

And most important of all: If you don’t birth your ideas by sharing, they’ll never…