There are still starting entrepreneurs out there who think success is all about the idea, while real life entrepreneurs know coming up with the idea was the easy part:

These past few days I’ve been contacted by several people who did not want to share what their idea was about (besides it being “big” and needing “lots of funding”), but were expecting me to share my network of investors with them.

Besides having no reason to expose my contacts to these wannapreneurs (and no, my issue is not that I want you to pay me as one of them suggested), I think many starting entrepreneurs have a misinformed view of what the investor’s landscape looks like.

It is not like there are only few investors and the difficulty is to get in touch with them → if you’re out there getting your first product or service to market, chances are they might even spot you. No, the real difficulty is to find the right type of investor for your type of business and your level of aspirations.

SPARK OF THE DAY

If you keep your thoughts and ideas to yourself, you can count on it that indeed no investor will ever be able to find you, nor will people in your network be able to connect you to anyone who might be able to get you further. You have to put in the work!

And this goes not only for inventors, but also for potential customers, employees, partners, … 

Lesson #1 for entrepreneurs who want to become successful: share, share, share!