Stop worrying about someone stealing your ideas

I enjoy talking with budding entrepreneurs but I hear a recurring worry that I want to dispel.  They get overly concerned about someone stealing their idea if they talk about it.  The short answer is that execution far outstrips the value of ideas, but let's do a little thought experiment here: What do you really stand to lose if the idea is stolen?

Play this one out. Suppose you share the idea with some people, get some good feedback and refine it a bit and start doing business. Someone else comes into the market doing what you do. So what? Is the market so small that it can only support one provider, or do you just dislike the idea of competition?

This happens to any clever, popular or novel business. People notice and copy. I can't recall any example of someone losing out on building their business because someone stole the idea. It seems so worrisome but in reality it just doesn't happen. Your best defense is a book of satisfied customers.

Besides, once you are in business for a few years what you do changes considerably in the process of listening to what customers really want. That business idea you shared back in 2015 to friends and colleagues? It will sound ambitious and likely naive because stuff evolves in user land, so if someone wants to steal the idea off paper let them be your guest. Let them spend the sweat equity of years listening to customers and refining the process if they have the guts to do it because in my observation the evolution of the idea is the idea. You are just sharing the first draft.