Keep Your Mouth Shut

Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 08:51am by William Quisenberry in Innovation

At some point I’m going to have to learn to keep business ideas, pursuits and plans under wraps, because there are dream snatchers everywhere. I’m sick and tired of bumping into people who are supposedly associates or even friends, expressing a project that I’m after or working on, then finding out that they have gone behind my back and tried to work the same function.

Once I was speaking with one of my own family members discussing a new business that I was working on creating, which at the time happened to be a wholesale car purchasing and brokerage company.

Since I use to work in the automotive sales industry, I had a lot of connections in the field, understood how the whole process worked and knew wholesalers who were making a ton of money.

So I tell this family member my idea that I’m working on and he’s just listening tentatively and then he would say something like, “Well how do you plan on getting started in a business like that?” So I would explain in detail the process.

After the discussion he tells me, “I’ve got to tell you, you’re on to something pretty big there.” So then a week later this same person comes up to me saying that he has a new business plan that he’s trying to construct for a new venture he’s pursuing.

Initially I think, “Wow that’s great,” because I love to see others, especially my own family members pursuing operations within the area of entrepreneurship. I ask him what venture he planned on creating and he then explains to me with a straight face that he had come up with this awesome idea to create a car brokering business.

I said, “You stole that idea from me! Wasn’t I just explaining that business idea to you just a week ago?” Of course he denied having gathered the idea from me and said that he had thought of this venture over two years ago. Yea right and I am George W. Bush.

So anyway I chose not to venture into the field really for other reasons and a much more enjoyable and potentially profitable business became available and I pursed that instead of the car brokerage business. The last I heard this family member made some attempts at getting his venture off the ground, but I don’t think he succeeded at it.

I could tell story after story explaining how people tried to undercut me and steal my ideas, venture creations or even contracts that I was after. Just learn to keep your mouth shut and speak to those who need speaking to and avoid engaging in frivolous conversations which offer no benefit or opportunity for your growth.

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