THE ONE TIME WORDS SHOULD SPEAK LOUDER THAN ACTIONS.

Before I leaped into this glorified, grueling version of unemployment, I remember receiving a piece of advice that I thought was full on crazy, but has turned out to be one of the most valuable.

My friend, a successful entrepreneur in her own right, said:

“Tell your idea to anyone and everyone you meet.”

For me, that was completely counter-intuitive. I mean, shouldn’t you zealously guard your precious idea from the preying vultures that are inevitably lurking everywhere? Shouldn’t you keep your darling but as yet imperfect baby to yourself until you can work out the kinks and have a grand unveiling? And shouldn’t you be selective with who has the privilege and the quantitative capacity to appreciate the groundbreaking thing you’ll be bringing into the world?

And the answer, as it turns out, is an resounding, emphatic NO.

You shouldn’t.

Because a), no one else is obsessing about your idea like you are. That’s all in your head — which, btw, is filled with that special entrepreneurial substance called irrational optimism. And even if there is someone remotely thinking about the space, you seriously can’t underestimate the importance and the variability that execution injects into your precious.

Which brings us to b), your ugly little baby is bound to remain ugly and unwanted unless you get into the habit of talking to people, all people, often and honestly and humbly. Now, whose feedback you take into account for what is why they pay you the big bucks. But it was incredible what insights and potential death blows we discovered because we talked to literally anybody who would give us a minute. Or 15. Just ask my nanny or my neighbors or that lady in that cafe that one time.

And then there’s c). Don’t be a pompous, know-it-all ass. First time founders don’t know their heads from their nether regions or their MVPs from their term sheets. If you can’t manage to convey and convince anyone of the brilliance of your idea, you should like start rethinking how revolutionary it really is. Unless your dealing with scalable, fault-tolerant distributed ACID transactions. In which case please continue. Because many of us are very likely to never know what the heck you’re talking about.

In short — if you’re in any way flirting with an idea that stands to change the very fabric of our lives, start talking about it. Not only for the reasons above, but because the first couple of times you do, the words feel like marbles, all jumbled and garbled in your mouth, spitting out in haphazard and ungraceful ways.

“Uh, so, yeah, I was thinking… I had this idea that, you know, when like …”

Uh huh.

And that doesn’t mean that you have to quit your job to do this. In fact, please remain fully and gainfully employed while you do this bit. You have weekends and friends and people to talk to, don’t you?

Start talking.