I watched Mark Yegge’s TEDxUF Talk called Executing Your Ideas for graduate school. In the video, he talks about the importance of sharing your ideas. Mark Yegge said: “If you’re not going to tell anyone your idea, then there is no way you can ever really implement it.”

This has taken me a few years to fully understand, but it makes perfect sense to me now, and I am glad to see others being more open with their ideas. Anytime I am a feeling bit reluctant to share my ideas, I try to remember these things:

1. People are lazy, they’re not going to steal your idea.

Carlos Moreno told me this, he was my CTO at the time. It was very impactful. Disclaimer: people can totally steal your idea, but generally speaking, most people have their own work and life problems to deal with.

2. You’re the expert, they can’t steal your idea.

A statement I continue to tell any family member who brings an idea to me. If you are the expert, you are the one with the ability and power to do it!

3. Your idea is good, but it could be better.

People are willing to help you make your idea better for free. This is just something I have noticed as I have simply asked people for their opinion. People love to give advice, and if you present your idea in an open fashion, people will give you honest and valuable feedback.

4. Telling people about an idea creates self-pressure.

The more you talk about it, the more likely you are going to actually do it.