Over the past two months, in a position with freedom to make my own role and work, and working in a space with so much room for improvement and change, I’ve caught on to the entrepreneurial bug, though I try hard to resist it knowing that I’d prefer to be an intrapreneur.

What I’ve found though, is that its actually easy to come up with ideas for initiatives and ventures. And when I get too many in my head, it quickly becomes overwhelming because I want to do all of them. In fact, I think its easy to get excited about an idea, embrace a can do, start something attitude, and put the wheels in motion to try and make your idea a reality. This is especially true with the rise of incubators and accelerators and more resources for entrepreneurs and startups. (Of course, once the wheels are in motion, it’s the opposite of easy).

I think its much more difficult to step back and really consider whether your idea is actually right for the community, available resources, and sustainability, and that it doesn’t already exist. And if the idea already exists, because you thought of it too, it seems easy to justify why you can try and launch your own version instead of working with what is already there by adding your perspective or joining the team. Recently, another intrapreneurial friend and I were excited about starting a new project together, until we both realized that something similar just launched, and no matter how much we could try and differentiate our project from the existing one, it didn’t make sense given our belief in not starting something just for the sake of it if its not filling a true gap in the market. It wasn’t an easy decision to let it go, but instead, we are now working with the other venture.

I think it is important to be very intentional, informed, and collaborative before moving forward with an idea. What I find most important is that when I get an idea for something new, I try not to keep it to myself, even though that tends to be my natural, initial instinct. I share it with friends, colleagues, and people I network with, and immediately ask for their feedback and participation. They always add a great perspective, know of something similar that already exists, make me think of new ideas, put me in touch with the right people, or want to join me. Anything worth doing will only be successful and impactful with other minds involved. And just as I don’t see any use in recreating something that already exists or launching a venture that doesn’t have a unique purpose, I see no use in keeping your ideas secret. 

Nilofer Merchant recently wrote an excellent article about letting go and being open with your ideas for HBR, taking the concept of unleashing your ideas to a new level. 

Openness, she explains, is the uprisings of the Arab Spring, TEDx, Apple, and individual collaboration. She points out that Apple’s openness, by allowing developers to create apps for Apple products, fueled growth and a new market. She also talks about the difficulty in letting go of your ideas, but the real power in opening them up for feedback and collaboration. Companies and individuals should strive to understand and embrace her points about the catalytic power of openness.

Excerpts from her piece:

There are two ways of holding an idea. One is with a closed fist, and one is with an open palm.

When you hold an idea in a closed fist, you control it. It is yours. And no one else can access it. Ideas held tightly — as if in a fist — can’t be seen. 

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But an idea held in an open hand can evolve.

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And perhaps this is human nature. Anytime we give birth to anything — kids, companies, ideas — the natural instinct is to hold that thing close, to protect it from the big, scary world and the bad things in it. 

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This is hallmark of openness: it strengthens not just the direct act, but the indirect acts — of community, of speed to create new solutions, and certainly new solutions to old problems. And, the real key is that an open approach can get to new and better ideas — and a lot more of them — faster, as a system opens up. Openness is about allowing for anyone, anywhere to contribute. Not the people you think can, or even the people that you might think “should”, but from the abundance and diversity of many peoples experiences. 

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The future is not created; the future is co-created. Whenever we want something bigger, and better, and faster, we need to be able to let go of a tight grip and open up.

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Openness is powerful, even catalytic. On a personal level, it not only allows us to share, but to co-create with speed. On an organizational level, it allows for more than collaboration, it enables communities. At a societal level, it is more than distributing power, and allowing for the shift from what is to what will be. It also allow for shared responsibility. Making anyone able, and perhaps even everyone responsible for finding new solutions to old problems, and inventing the future. Openness is a way to enable many people to connect and create in the Social Era.

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If we embrace openness, we are banking on something else — the indomitable spirit of people’s ability to create. And in that one move, we unlock the potential of many.

Letting Go of Your Ideas