Another question in e-mail today that I can’t resist sharing, along with my answer. Here’s the question:

I believe that I have ideas that can make great money in the hands of real entrepreneurs. I do not want to be the one who spends my whole life applying them, writing the business plan, looking for money, finding the right team, etc. How can I sell business ideas or investment ideas without becoming an entrepreneur myself?

… and my answer:

Forget it. The idea has no value. If it’s worth anything, a thousand other people have the same idea.

You don’t believe me? OK, prove it. Prove me wrong. Make your idea work. Find a management team, write a business plan, get the funding, and–whoops–you just became an entrepreneur.

I could go on, I suppose (actually I did in the real e-mail), but this is a better answer. Right to the point. And I have posted on the value of the idea before on this blog, in Ideas are Easy, Doing Stuff is Hard and a couple other posts, and on bplans.com I posted an article in the same general mode called Protect Your Idea.

Tim BerryTim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.