Ideas Have Rights

Ideas have rights.

• The right to exist. You judge your ideas to soon. You are afraid they aren’t good enough. You worry that people will judge you for having a bad idea or one with which they don’t agree. So you kill the idea while it is still in the womb before it is even born. But the only way to have good ideas is to have a lot of ideas. Your ideas have a right to exist.
• The right to be explored. Some ideas are half-baked. They aren’t fully formed. They’re just the kernel of an idea. Many of them won’t amount to anything. But with further exploration, some ideas turn out to be valuable, revolutionary, earth-shattering humdingers. Unless you explore the idea, you’ll never know whether or not it had value.
• The right to be defended. Your ideas need you to defend them. They need to be protected. There is always someone who is willing to play devil’s advocate, and too few willing to play angel’s advocate. Ideas don’t grow up to create value and come to fruition without someone willing to defend them from those who would rather see them destroyed.

You will never have the right idea if you aren’t willing to generate ideas without fear, explore them without judgement, and defend them from those opposed..