Rule 9. It is impossible to build a business without sharing your idea.

Like any entrepreneur, you will experience bouts of paranoia over the possibility that someone will steal your idea. But your idea, remember, is already taken. What's more, the idea will go nowhere unless you allow it to emerge from the confines of your overprotective brain. Your idea wants friends: investors and marketers and others who are eager to nurture it with cash and expertise and help it grow into a muscular, IPO-ready business.

 

Share your idea

 

The nondisclosure agreement (NDA), lets you share your idea, yet prevents others from discussing it. It cites the ‘‘confidential and proprietary'' nature of your idea and the need for that information to be ‘‘maintained in confidence by the receiving party.'' Though it's a forbidding legal document, it's mostly useless as VCs are rarely willing to sign NDAs. It's as if you're telling them you think they're in the business of handing out ideas to their best buddies.

 

You may have more luck getting angel investors to sign. They see fewer business plans and may be less savvy about the ways of institutional investing. As for potential employees, well, they want a job, and they can be expected to be more accommodating.

 

There is a lesson in this NDA aversion: Tell others about your idea. You never know where you'll find a person central to transforming your idea into an actual business. So don't worry too much about sharing your idea with whoever you approach. Besides if it is all that easy for someone to run away with your idea, maybe you need to take a closer look at it anyway.