I keep bumping into people with very cool business ideas.

The problem? They're afraid of talking about them because they think their ideas will be copied or stolen.

I can relate to that feeling.

A few years ago (back in 2004) I came up with an idea for a new TV show about entrepreneurs that I wanted to produce and host. I was going to call it Taking Care of Business and it was going to be like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy meets Trading Spaces - for struggling small businesses.

I would be the marketing expert, sort of the Carson Kressley of the bunch (maybe Paige Davis is a better comparison!), and I'd have a team of two other people to help, including a financial wizard and a management guru.

I worked hard to develop the concept for the show. I wrote a treatment, sample scripts and came up with a logline. I shared the idea with several of my friends in the TV business, people like Ian Saunders and Barry Ross Rinehart. They thought it was a good idea and helped me move it forward. Ian even pulled together all of his creative agency, PBJS employees and helped me brainstorm the idea further.

I was just in the process of putting together budget and mapping out when I would film the pilot episode when I got an email from Barry.

It said something like, "Guess what. Someone beat you to the punch. Check this out."

In his email was a link to a news article (in the New York Times, I think) about a new TV show coming out on TLC in the Fall of 2004 called Taking Care of Business. The hook? Troubled businesses receive professional help from a team of experts.

It was exactly what I had in mind.

I was crushed. How could someone else have had my same idea? Why hadn't I moved faster? Maybe I should've never told anyone about my idea and just kept it to myself. Maybe by sharing it I leaked it into "the universe" too much.

Barry and Ian were quick to catch me before I spiraled out of control.

"Don't let it get you down. Think of how many different cooking TV shows there are. Or home design TV shows. And travel shows, fashion shows, news shows, and TV talk shows. Just keep going. Tweak that idea and keep moving forward."

They were right.

Keep your ideas flowing.

Keep your creativity churning.

Keep getting your ideas out of your head, off of the paper (or the computer) and into the world and see what happens.

Ideas are a dime a dozen but going through the process of turning them into reality is priceless.

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