{"id":5106,"date":"2016-11-02T20:13:48","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T00:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/?p=5106"},"modified":"2016-11-02T20:39:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T00:39:58","slug":"your-word-your-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/your-word-your-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Word, Your Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your word. \u00a0That is really all you have. \u00a0NDA, MNDA, CA<\/a> and other acronyms\u00a0try and define silence and guide you to be discreet, but really it’s just your word. \u00a0All you have is your spoken word, as in: I will not disclose this idea, concept, thought or effort to anyone, especially if it could be of any detriment to another.<\/p>\n

Why does this matter? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, a good friend of mine – Jane, had a really forward-thinking idea. \u00a0In what she thought was a private setting, discretion was implied, but not defined, not talked about and certainly not signed off on. \u00a0She gave it up… an idea, a notion she felt would help her firm and all involved. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Guess what? \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Someone betrayed the implied rule of being discreet. \u00a0That\u2019s right, she shared a concept, an idea that would be awesome and someone couldn\u2019t wait to flap their lips about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was it my friend Jane\u2019s fault? \u00a0Admittedly, yes. \u00a0She said it, she felt good about the group she was talking with, she felt sure they saw the value she was delivering, not only for her, but also for them. \u00a0It didn\u2019t matter. Once the bullets of words are fired, they cannot be put back into the weapon… your mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lesson learned. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jane said this goes down as one of those moments in time she will never forget. \u00a0She chose to let her emotions about the novel, the science project, a great concept or whatever she was noodling on out into the ether. \u00a0She had no clue that this group, or maybe better said perhaps one person, in this intimate group would spill the beans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They did. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now all must suffer though it. \u00a0The strained relationships, the weird feeling next time \u201cthey come around\u201d and simply the sinking feeling that is in the pits of several stomachs following this episode.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

OK then, what to do to stave off events like this in your world? \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

While nothing can protect you from a dirt-bag that wants to betray you, you can work, in a professional manner, to reduce your risk of exposure and betrayal. \u00a0Invest a few hundred bucks in a Mutual Non-Disclosure Document. \u00a0It\u2019s simple. They, your audience of one or many, read it, and if they agree to the verbiage, they sign it. \u00a0That signature is telling you, \u201dI will not give up your secrets that you share with me.\u201d \u00a0Sounds asinine<\/a> to have to have that, but you really do and you really should.<\/span><\/p>\n

The message here? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Never stop dreaming big. Do not let your thoughts, concepts and designs go dormant. Get them out there, someone may make them better. \u00a0Someone may know how to run with it to make it the next big thing, but for goodness sakes, do what you can to minimize the vultures from feeding at the trough<\/a> of your mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Until next time,<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay provoked,<\/span><\/p>\n

G<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your word. \u00a0That is really all you have. \u00a0NDA, MNDA, CA and other acronyms\u00a0try and define silence and guide you to be discreet, but really it’s just your word. \u00a0All you have is your spoken word, as in: I will not disclose this idea, concept, thought or effort to anyone, especially if it could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,15,23,8,6,28],"class_list":["post-5106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-lifelonglearning","tag-business-startup","tag-excellence","tag-greg-crumpton","tag-personal-development","tag-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5106"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5112,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions\/5112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gregcrumpton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}