Hail To The Idea Thief

“Give credit where credit is due.”

Surely, you’ve heard that phrase uttered at some point in your life. The message is simple: if an idea wasn’t yours, don’t try to pass it off as yours. If you’ve ever written a research paper, you’ve put this practice to use. In a research paper, you can’t just copy and paste something that someone else said and put it in yours and expect the professor to give you an A+. No, that practice is called plagiarism. And yes, it’s bad.

But when is it okay to stop giving credit? When can you say that, although you may not have originated the idea, the idea is something that you believe in? The idea, the philosophy, is yours, so when can you stop name-dropping and telling who converted your way of thinking?

If you believe in the gift economy, do you have to credit Seth Godin every time that you mention it? If you believe that the ROI on social media cannot be easily quantified, do you have to mention David Meerman Scott when you argue your case with someone? If you’ve embraced the Long Tail, do you have to reference Chris Anderson?

Some ideas are meant to spread. And in order for them to spread, they must become your ideas. They must become something that you believe in so passionately that they become a part of you. And you become a part of them.

I willingly admit that I am not a very original person. When I’m asked to solve problems, I can’t always come up with an original solution. But I have no problem taking someone else’s solution and applying it to my problem and situation. In some ways, I may be an idea thief. If I see that something works, I have no problem in implementing it into my daily life.

If I see that someone has come up with an organization system that is better than mine, his system becomes my system. When I see someone who is a better communicator than I am, I try to identify his mojo and then — you guessed it — I try to steal it.

This is why I enjoy talking to people who work in industries completely different from mine. You never know what you can learn from these people. You never know what ideas you can steal from them and implement into your business. The possibilities are endless.

Sometimes I wonder if we may put too much emphasis on originality and creativity. Sure, these elements are important, but it’s difficult for all of us to be original and creative every single day in every single situation. If you are unable to come up with an original idea, steal one. Of course, you have to make the call on whether you should give credit or not.

Quite frankly, if I ask you to solve a problem that I have, I don’t care if the solution is your own. All I care about is whether it works.

Hail to the idea thief!

Tagged as: creativity, originality, problem-solving