Million Dollar Idea? How to Protect It

Here’s how to protect your million dollar idea:

Give birth to it.

No joke: if people knew how hard it was to give birth to an idea, they wouldn’t worry a bit about other people stealing them.

Conceiving a good idea is easy. By nature, conception is fun. Brainstorming the big ideas? fun.

Just like a different form of conception that is also, in a word, fun.

So how do you protect your brilliant idea when everyone out there seems to be constantly going through the act of conceiving, many of them seemingly conceiving ideas similar to your own?

Give birth to it.

Unlike conception, the birthing process is often difficult, painful, and stressful—and infinitely more meaningful.

Ask anyone who’s gone beyond conception to give birth, and ask them what the best day of their life is, and tell me if a single one of them ever says, “The day of conception.”

It just doesn’t happen.

Part of what gives the birth of an idea meaning is the fact that almost always, the process is unduly shouldered by a single person. Not many people can handle pressure.

So if you really want to protect your idea, become the person who can.