"What if they steal your idea?" Was the resounding question I'd hear all week upon sharing with friends and colleagues that I'd be making a live appearance at Charlotte's infamous Pitch Breakfast competition in uptown.
I'd been waiting all year to pitch my cutting edge new concept around the technological future of my new strategic development brand, GrowGetter, and now my time was just a few days a way.
I had found out, only a week earlier, that GrowGetter 2.0 was up next with a small list of guidelines to abide by. "How exciting, yet, are we ready?" I recall that being our mixed bag reaction to the news. Oddly enough, while my team and I were fixated on trivial things like, the perfect order of our pitch deck slides, determining which details were relevant vs. irrelevant for the judges or which shoes would best match my power outfit, others were consumed with the possible theft of my intellectual property.
Indeed, I could certainly understand why this would be an area of concern for some since we live in a society where the NEXT BEST IDEA is the key to building an empire with an early retirement and an impressive legacy.
And, those who knew me, know I had no shortage of great ideas and had already encountered occurrences where some attempted to deliberately duplicate my original concepts, therefore I could valiantly appreciate the concerns of my colleagues. However, aside from my being lawyered up and trademark-copyright protected, something else came to mind when these concerns were posed my way.
An image that had been branded in my subconscious memory-bank, of my daughter and I, in a mall department store one Saturday afternoon.
The clerk was clearly overwhelmed as a line full of people emerged upon her all at once. There were easily 15 people huddled in the back of the store where the line formed and with clear frustration, she rung up orders, with no relief in sight.
What was interesting about this mall department store, was that the check-out registers were located in the very back of the store, meaning the front of the store was left totally exposed, with no greeter to approach embarking traffic.
I remember thinking about how they could be getting robbed blindly with no one standing watch. Then I further analyzed and thought to myself, what would I do, if faced with (A.) watching what might be happening behind my back or (B.) serving the demand of loyal customers that are standing right in front of me and willing to pay what the product's worth?
It's a difficult choice, however I'd certainly choose (B.), which boils down to operating out a state of abundance and not a state of fear.
For me, it really boiled down to not allowing fears to stop me from making progress or a chance to implement something great that would positively impact millions of consumers.
I chose to be the store clerk, who didn't choose to guard the door over the decision to serve the greater need. Additionally, there are actually ways to achieve both objectives, thru understanding your legal rights and options when it comes to protecting your intellectually property. (Form swift, legal zoom, legal shield and trademark attorneys are all great options based on your need.)
Conclusively, I'd go on to pitch at #pitchbreakfast from a state of abundance and not a state of fear and in doing so; are currently in talks with a premiere technology partner who also saw the benefits and potential in GrowGetter 2.0! We are moving forward with planning out the System Development Life Cycle for GrowGetter 2.0 and beyond and I couldn't be more excited!
My summary is, there is only one you and no one can ever replace the authentic you. There are also legal options to protect your intellectual property and new ideas.
Most importantly don't be so consumed with watching what's happening behind your back that you miss opportunities standing right in front of your face.
Abundance or fear, you be the judge.
#growgettertalks #chiefgrowgetter #businesscontentqueen
