The “stolen” idea of Facebook and eternal legal battle between Zuckerberg and the twins is a well documented worst case scenario as to what happens when you share your idea with the wrong people. But what is the best case scenario?

I was recently on 5By (check them out, amazing video conceirge style curation) and checking out their Venture Cap Channel. 5By served me up a pretty great video on finding a technical co-founder, a question I get all the time from the start-ups I work with that are lacking the Hacker to complete the Hipster, Hacker, Hustler trifecta. In this video, Ian Jeffrey of FounderFuel, says that the best way to attract the Hacker is to tell everyone about your idea, especially at events and meet ups where the Hacker types might hang out (look for neck beards and ironic t-shirts) He also addresses the “what if someone steals the idea” concern.

I’ve thought about this idea of people stealing my ideas before telling folks about projects that I think about on nights and weekends and during the first 10,000 feet of airline flights. When it all boils down to it, I could give someone all the details needed and a really good pitch about why some of my ideas are awesome but if they tried to steal them, they would be missing a very important piece of the reason it is a great idea: Me.

At this point in the innovation and start-up industry’s life cycle, we are beyond the point were people are looking for the needle in the haystack of good ideas. Now people are trying to beat back the good ideas and find the great ones, and, most everyone is partial to their own. People don’t have time to steal your ideas, they’re trying to find enough time to do their own.

A great example of this kind of openness was the subject of my Forbes post this morning. John O’Nolan laid out his game plan for building Ghost last year and didn’t hide much. But, it was because of this openness that he got over 100,000 unique views on that blog post and, in the past 24 hours, has doubled his Kickstarterr goal and is well on his way to blowing the doors off of this opportunity. If someone else had taken this idea and run with it without John, it would have failed. There is no one else that cared about it as much as he did. And because of that caring, he’s attracted a team of rock stars to work with him.

So, get out there and share the big ideas. Get out there and find others they resonate with. Then go do them together. That’s what this wild and crazy world is all about.Tweet

I have been a Simon Sinek fan for awhile, every since his TED Talk (which I blogged about HERE.) And today during lunch, like I do everyday that I don’t have a lunch meeting, I had a Learning Lunch. I usually go to the TED Talks channel, but this time, YouTube suggested another Simon Sinek talk first.

If you only have three minutes, watch the first three minutes when he discuses his purpose in life. But if you want to hear leadership explained in a way that will be immediately implementable in your life, take the 21 minutes to watch the whole thing.
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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I shared some thoughts on Forbes about the parallels I see everyday between sales and dating. The one truth that applies in both instances that I didn’t include but perhaps should have is this: If you’re not getting any, it is not their fault. 

Read the whole post here: DATING IS LIKE SALESTweet

Sometimes a hand written note and thoughtful gift are all it takes.

At the end of the year, it is always crazy. This year is proving to be more so. Letters and packages and flights and Q4 goals to finish out. So wild that when a hand written envelope was placed on my desk yesterday, I didn’t even bother to open it for a couple of hours. But when I did, I found something that made my day.

Chad, the owner of the Get Squared Etsy shop, had come across my podcast with Keith Ferrazzi’s Social Capitalist show. After a little sleuthing, he discovered my not so well kept secret that I have an obsession with pocket squares.  And by going just a little bit further down the extra mile, I am assuming he tracked down the address to my office online and sent the note and great hand made pocket square.

The Get Squared pocket squares are simple but perfect to pair against a coat or shirt with a pattern like I did here. The stitching along the edges adds just enough definition to make sure no one is confused about whether you’re wearing a handkerchief or a pocket square. And for $5, you might as well buy one of each from Chad for yourself and one of each to give out as Christmas presents this year. Check them out for yourself: http://www.etsy.com/shop/GetSquared

There is an art and science to hustle. Hand written notes win on both sides of that story.Tweet

Some advice transcends trends. Check out this talk by Kevin Rose a few years back (Twitter was new) where he lays out some of the hacks that he and his teams used to grow their companies.

Definitely worth the 22 minutes. (HERE is the text version as well)

Always looking for great resources like this for the companies I advise.

Know of another good batch of advice, let me know.

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