Don't Let the Fear of Your Idea Being Stolen Hold You Back

Don't Let the Fear of Your Idea Being Stolen Hold You Back

Stephen Key

I am truly amazed by how afraid some inventors are. They fear that someone is going to steal their million-dollar idea. They assume that every company is eagerly lying in wait, ready to rip them off.

This ugly point of view rears its head everywhere I look, from conversations on LinkedIn groups to YouTube comments. These entrepreneurs are quick to declare that companies will steal your idea. Why would they pay us for our ideas, they ask.

This thinking is not only annoying and counterproductive, but also simply untrue. I have been licensing my ideas for over 30 years. I’ve submitted hundreds of my ideas to companies without any trouble. For the past 13 years, I’ve been teaching inventors how to license their own ideas. Not one of my students has ever had their idea stolen.

Knowing how the game is played is a lot more beneficial than trembling with unfounded anxiety. Being concerned and careful is smart. After all, it’s perfectly legal for a company to try to work around your idea. You must account for that!

Many companies have embraced open innovation. These companies are actively seeking out product ideas from inventors. The reason why is simple. At the same time that a company is able to lower its internal R&D costs, it magnifies its chances of finding its next great idea. Reviewing inventors’ ideas costs next to nothing.

Do you know what does cost companies, though? Ripping off an inventor. The bottom line is that it’s not in a company’s best interest to steal ideas. For one, what company wants that kind of negative press? There’s also the potential of a lawsuit. Finally, stealing an inventor’s idea effectively closes the door on open innovation.

However, let me be clear. It’s our job to protect our ideas effectively with intellectual property. I’m not naïve. There are companies out there that will definitely try to work around your idea if you give them an opportunity to. These companies haven’t truly embraced open innovation, which is their loss. You can protect yourself from these kinds of companies by filing intellectual property that stops workarounds.

Stop giving in to your fear and follow the steps below to protect yourself instead.

1. Do a thorough prior art search.
You can hire an outside firm to do this, but you should also search for prior art yourself, because it’s you who must become an expert. Familiarize yourself with all of the relevant intellectual property that has come before you. Find your innovation’s uniqueness.

2. Learn about manufacturing processes.
There are many ways of doing this, including watching YouTube videos and visiting manufacturing facilities. How will your product be made? What are all of the ways it can be made? You need to know. Designing a product that cannot be manufactured is a grave mistake. You may need to hire an engineer to work with you. Make sure to have anyone you discuss your invention with sign a non-disclosure agreement and a work-for-hire agreement.

3. Study up.
Read your industry’s trade magazines. What new materials are being used? Where is the industry headed? Consider attending a tradeshow and/or a seminar. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening.

4. Be selective about what companies you choose to work with.
Is the company inventor-friendly? Has it licensed an idea before? Are there any lawsuits or complaints that come up when you Google the company? Do your homework.

5. Maintain a paper trail.
Put everything in writing.

6. Don’t give anyone a reason to try to work around you.
If you ask for too much up front, the company will be less inclined to work with you. Be reasonable.

7. Think ahead.
When I write my own provisional patent applications, I try to steal my idea from myself. I think, if a company were to steal this from me, how would it? I think about manufacturing processes and materials.

Don’t let fear control your actions. Take responsibility. We’re entrepreneurs, after all. Risk is inherent.

20 Inspiring Quotes on How to Build a Successful Startup

20 Inspiring Quotes on How to Build a Successful Startup

THOMAS OPPONG

Startups have always been hard. Even when you think you are putting in your best, it may not be enough to pull it off. Truthfully, most people fail. But don't give up on your dream just yet. If you really believe that you have something amazing to share with the world (and there is a market for it), go for it. Don't be discouraged by the number of times you have tried and failed, but be inspired by the number of people who have failed and bounced back as successful entrepreneurs.

Here are some of the most important insights from amazing founders on building a great startup.

1."User experience is everything. It always has been, but it's still undervalued and under-invested in. If you don't know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board."
–Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter

2. “No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long-term if you don’t have a sufficiently good product.”
–Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator and co-founder of Loopt

3. “The product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.”
–Aaron Levie, co-founder of Box

4. “The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.”
–Rob Kalin, co-founder of Etsy

5. “Mistakes will not end your business. If you are nimble and willing to listen to constructive criticism you can excel by learning and evolving.”
–Meridith Valiando Rojas, co-founder and CEO of DigiTour Media

6. “Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.”
–Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora

7. “Make something people want” includes making a company that people want to work for.” –Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad.

8. “As an entrepreneur, you have to be OK with failure. If you’re not failing, you’re likely not pushing yourself hard enough."
–Alexa von Tobel, founder of LearnVest

9. “Unless you are a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy.”
–Jason Fried, founder of 37signals

Related: 10 Quotes From Entrepreneurial Icons That Will Inspire You to Crush 2015

10. “The strategy is to first know what you don’t know, the tactic is to grind, and the value is to remember: there are plenty of places to innovate.”
–David Friedberg, founder of Weatherbill

11. “Even if you don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely adapt.” 
–Victoria Ransom, co-founder of Wildfire Interactive

12. “Micromanage the process, not the people.”
–Joe Apfelbaum, co-founder of Ajax Union

13. “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”
–Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce

14. “Bad shit is coming. It always is in a startup. The odds of getting from launch to liquidity without some kind of disaster happening are one in a thousand. So don’t get demoralized.”
–Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator

15. “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.”
–Anthony Volodkin, founder, Hype Maching

16. “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
–Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors

17. “I think not focusing on money makes you sane, because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy."
–Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram

18. “We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”
–Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

19. “Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.”
–Mark Cuban, serial entrepreneur and investor

20. “Sustaining a successful business is a hell of a lot of work, and staying hungry is half the battle.”
–Wendy Tan White, co-founder and CEO of MoonFruit

Failure hurts, but it's your response to it that matters.

7 Startup Habits Worth Keeping No Matter How Big Your Business Grows

7 Startup Habits Worth Keeping No Matter How Big Your Business Grows

ALICE DEFAULT

Your startup is not meant to be a startup forever. Eventually, it’s meant to become a larger company with a more sustainable plan of action. And as you move further along that road, you will undergo a lot of changes.

Most of these changes will be for the better. No more working from coffee shops or living rooms, no more late nights fixing bugs, larger teams and more resources, less financial insecurity, more customers and the ability to plan the future better.

But there are also things that helped your business move forward that you shouldn’t try to change. These things defined your culture and strengthened your team when you began. They will still work for you, even when everything else is growing.

Here are the seven startup habits that you should never lose.

1. Experiment and take risks
Since startups don’t really know what will work for them, they are constantly experimenting, trying out new things, tracking and iterating on the things that work. As a larger company, there is a big chance that you will already have figured out things that work for you and things that just don’t. That is no reason to stop innovating or experimenting on new things as the market around you evolves.

Coca-Cola, for example, splits its advertising budget in three. They use 70 percent of it to do things they know work well, 20 percent to try things that are a bit more risky or iterate on past successful experimentations, and the last 10 percent to go for crazy experiments on that could fail completely. This enables them to stay on top of advertising innovation as the largest beverage company in the world while ensuring they’re not risking everything.

2. Keep mixing and matching jobs
Remember when there was only three or four people on your team? Everybody had to wear several hats. Multitasking in your company remains a great way to boost innovation and enhance team collaboration as you grow. Someone who understands what their colleague’s job is really like, and what he or she does on a daily basis, can work better with them.

Have your customer service people sit in on product meetings, mix marketing and sales, invite your engineers to do customer support. Companies like Amazon or Freshbooks have all their employees, whatever their job title or spot in the organization, do customer support on a regular basis. It keeps them focused on the things that really matter.

Related: The Case for Making Sales Reps Frontline Marketers

3. Have lunch and coffee together
This isn't trivial. Finding moments to talk with your team outside of meetings is crucial to your business. Going through an agenda can be long, annoying and a limit on the exchanges that spark creativity.

Lunch or coffee breaks are the perfect opportunity to brainstorm on new projects or challenges while catching up on what everyone is working on. You will create a better understanding inside of your company of each person’s job and role. With better understanding also comes better cooperation and better company culture.

At Evernote, the entire top management team takes turns at the office coffee shop making drinks for everyone. The weekly schedule is shared so that everyone can have a chance to catch up with any top management over a drink.

4. Stay close to your users
As a startup, your first users are always really dear to your heart. You cherish them and follow all of their ups and downs on your product. But as you grow, the risk is that you stop caring about them so much. Your first customer will always mean something to you, but do you feel the same about your 1,000th customer, your 10,000th, your 100,000th?

Make sure you never lose focus that your customers are the reason why your business is growing. When it launched  in 2009, inDinero started to take a few hours every week to call every single customer who churned the previous week. Five years later, they still do it to make sure they always stay connected with their users and understand what’s working or not for them.

Related: How to Attract (and Keep) Your First 100 Customers

5. Stay transparent
Information usually flows easily inside of a startup. Because there are not many of you, it’s easy for the CEO as well as for the employees to regularly catch up with everyone and stay on top of everything that’s happening. This gets harder and harder as a company grows.

To face this, companies like Stripe and Buffer have chosen to go for full transparency with shared email addresses and displayed dashboards, letting everyone have access to all the information they need at all times. Buffer’s metrics, salaries, and revenues are actually public for everyone to see. No secrets are kept and everyone can be fully involved in the mission of the company.

Regular team meetings are a great way to share information in both directions, from employees to CEO and CEO to employees. Google and Zappos have weekly or monthly team meetings where the entire company is invited to join the CEO for AMA sessions. All questions are permitted.

6. Keep things simple
As your company grows, you will have access to more resources, hire more employees and have more customers asking you more and more things. In this case, the temptation is high to keep adding on to your product with new features and additional use cases. However, the simplest products are usually those who will win over customers. Before adding this new “never-seen-before” plug-in, remember when you were keeping it simple. Ask yourself if it’s really necessary.

The team at Box, for example, is always sure to simplify their product as much as possible, from customer signup to in-app experience. They believe that staying clutter-free is what customers are looking for. This doesn’t mean that their product does less, it just means that complexity is hidden as much as possible from the end-user.

7. Stop planning, start doing
Startups often need to make do with what they have, which usually is not a lot. This pushes them to do instead of think. This lets them adapt quickly to any new situation, allowing them to move faster than larger companies.

Of course, as companies grow, more thorough planning becomes necessary for everything to run smoothly. You’ll have more people to manage, more projects to run and more people to report to. But this shouldn’t take you away from actual “doing”, “making”, “building”.

To avoid over-thinking things, the growth team at Hubspot put in place a very effective growth process to track all their actions. Now that it’s up and running, they only allow themselves one meeting on Mondays to plan the week ahead. All the other days are exclusively focused on doing.

In the end, it’s all about finding and keeping the habits that work for you. That starts by never forgetting the things that worked for you when you were small and got you where you are today.

You Have the P.O.W.E.R. to Start a Business While Working Your Day Job

You Have the P.O.W.E.R. to Start a Business While Working Your Day Job

ISRAEL IDONIJE
Founder and CEO of ATHLiTACOMiCS

I believe anyone can accomplish great things. Regardless of who you are or where you’re from, if you have an idea, you can make it happen. This approach to life has helped me to achieve goals and accomplishments far beyond the NFL, including starting my own business while still playing football. I used my power approach, not the same power I might have used on the field, but a simple five-step mantra to help anyone start a business.

1. Plan.
I knew it was important to transition to self-employment before my career in the NFL ended. I started my venture as an entrepreneur while playing for the Chicago Bears. The number one key to that transition is having a strong, flexible plan. Launching a new endeavor while still employed full time allows you to take your time and test the waters to gauge its potential for success. And most importantly adjust for the next play.

2. Originate.
Being original and innovative is a key aspect of anything I do. I combined in a unique way two worlds that I enjoy immensely, sports and comics. Athlitacomics’ mission is to inspire, unite and entertain the world with dazzling art and stories. When figuring out where to start, the first place to look is at your passions and what problems might need solving in that platform. Be willing to reverse assumptions, study your industry’s history or look outside what you know.

3. Willingness.
Turning ideas into reality takes serious work! My spare time was spent working on bringing my business plan to life and persisting even when I was turned down. There was a lot of sacrifices involved to get to where I am today. An abundance of great ideas are out there, but it’s the action that is often lacking. You need to be willing to put in the work and face criticism.

4. Evolve.
At one point with my Sports Heroes property, I had to shift gears to get to the real opportunity. Be prepared to change course, tweak or transform as needed to position your idea for the best possible launch. Keep in mind that many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is completely different from how they were first imagined.

5. Resources.
Put together the best possible team and/or gather the needed essentials before you start operating. Create a list of what you’ll need and its associated cost. Some requirements on my list included branding, an online presence and communications. No matter the size of your business, you’ll need a few essentials to get up and running and to demonstrate professionalism to your target audience.

You don’t need to quit your day job right now to start your own business. You just need the right plan, some original thinking, the willingness to do it, the ability to evolve and the right resources. That is the power behind my business.

Source : The Entrepreneur

The Man I Married: by Asibor Hilary Osoria.

The Man I Married; by Asibor Hilary Osoria.

My name is Shaw, I am 54 years old. This is my True Life Story.

I met this guy sometime in May 2007 through my late husband. This man happened to be my husband’s closest friend and confidant who became part of my family as a result of the closeness. We were very close and I got to know him as a very humble man. During my mourning period he was very supportive and was always available for my family. Even when my husband’s family tried to rubbish me and keep me in the dark, not wanting me to know the next plan of action, he, my late husband’s friend was always by me.

After the mourning period, as expected, I was frustrated and confused. I prayed and cried. My husband with all the plans he had for us his family, died so prematurely though he was ill for long. A lot of people suggested that Joe, my husband’s closest friend should marry me, even though my husband’s family strongly kicked against the idea on the ground that their late brother kept a lot of wealth for us and they are in the best position to decide who marries me and consequently controls our family business.

The battle was tough but eventually the elders of both families (my husband’s and mine) sat down and decided that I should be given the opportunity to make a choice. They also suggested to me as a way of recommendation that Joe is the best for me, being that he has worked with my husband diligently and understood my husband’s plan for my family.

I decided to hear from him, to see if he could really convince me beyond reasonable doubt that he will be a great husband. We met several times and I got to know a lot about him. He happens to come from a humble background. He is a caring person and fun to be with.

Eventually we got married in May 2010.

He had earlier on played the role of a father to my kids while my husband was very ill and I was impressed.

Along the line, I started seeing some personal traits that was not obvious in the beginning. For instance, he does not respond to family issues on time. When I have issues with neighbours, even when they beat our kids outside, he will never bulge. I complained of this attitude severally but he always ignored me. Many times, my kids were sent away from school because of school fees and other times because of very poor performance in exams.

Now it has been four years since we got married. I have checked our general condition as a family and I came to realise that we have not made much progress after all. Our family wealth has been distributed amongst those who stood by my present husband during the death of my late husband. They have virtually left nothing for my children and me. My kids fall sick regularly and never have access to good medical care. My first son failed WAEC and my findings showed that it was because we could not afford good lesson teacher for him, unlike our neighbour’s son who had 7As and 3Bs in same exams.

With all these in my mind, I have become very cold towards him. He has refused to change but he never fails to say sorry for not doing the right things even when everything is under is command. I am sick and tired of complaining without any changes.

Lest I forget, there is this man who has always asked for my hand in marriage, even before I met my late husband. But I have remained sceptical about him. Something tells me that he will be a bully and will turn our relationship to that of a good master and servant. I feel this way about him because he was my late sister’s husband. Though, my sister and her family were always protected by him from neighbours and intruders. He never failed to flog any child that misbehaved even when his wife begged for mercy on the child’s behalf.

He always paid his children’s school fees and he always made sure that everybody had access to medical care. Nobody complained of lack but you will be thought a lesson if you wasted a grain of rice.

My sister’s problem with him was that he never allowed her to buy expensive jewelleries. She was not allowed to spend her holidays in expensive cities around the world even when they could afford it, and was always interested in how she spends the family money. My sister never liked it.

But I noticed that my sister was always happy and had a very high self-esteem. She never complained of neglect, not even for once. She never complained that her husband was seeing someone else. She said her husband always let her know before spending money from their family purse. At a point we felt her husband was over working himself for his family.

In 2009 while my late husband was still alive, some miscreants came threatening my family and requesting that we should start living our life in a certain way. They were so serious with the threat to the extent that one of my late husband’s security men was killed. This did not go down well with my late husband so he ordered for the arrest of the gang leader. But during his arrest, he was killed by friends and colleagues of my husband’s security man who was earlier killed by the gang. The death of this gang leader brought a sudden stop to the threat and misbehaviour of those miscreants.

Disaster struck!

Few years down the line, after the death of my late husband, the group came back with an unprecedented force with the aim of putting my family on bended knees. They killed many of my present husband’s security men. They destroyed our properties and caused great fear in my family. At this point, we were unable to go on with our daily activities without fear. Our finance started to nose-dive.

Now, instead of my husband to seat down and plan on how to tackle these guys, he will rather start trading blames. He blames his problem on anybody that criticises his miscalculated decisions.

Today, most of our business partners have stopped doing business with us. Some say our environment is no longer secure, while others accuse my husband of corruption and lack of management skill.

Moment of decision,

In our culture, a woman is expected to review her marriage every four years and decide whether to continue or marry someone else. This happens to be the year and I am deeply worried, not knowing what to do. Should I give my husband another four years or marry my late sister’s husband?

Please advise.

This Writer is a Nigerian based in Nigeria, he can be reached via chlimited247gmail. chlimited247@gmail.com 

THE MAN YOU MUST NEVER MEET!

THE MAN YOU MUST NEVER MEET!

I heard this story from a preacher several years ago and the lesson it teaches is as relevant today as it was then.

There was once an accomplished, globally renowned organist. His skills on the various forms of pipe and electric organs were unrivalled. He was a much sought-after performer at government and inter-governmental functions all over the world. And as his fame and accolade grew, so did his bank account.

But in a very quiet recess of his heart there was something that was yearning for more. For more diligence in reaching deeper to become even better at what he did. And for more effort in discovering why he had been so extraordinarily blessed by the gift he had. But his busy schedule and growing demand for his services did not give him too much time to reflect on the quiet yearning of his heart. Just around this period, he was declared the ‘Man of the Year’ by the global TIME magazine – he had reached the zenith of accomplishment.

He died shortly afterwards and found himself in an unending tunnel of light. As he walked along, he heard a melodious music coming from somewhere down the tunnel. He quickened his pace toward the source of the music, for he was enthralled by the quality of the music he was hearing. “Yeah, that’s the level of music I would have loved to play on earth; that was what my mind kept nudging me towards.” He said to himself as he got to a bend and saw the man playing the music in the distance.

Half running now, he got to the man, stood behind him and listened intently to the music he would have loved to play on earth. Summoning up courage, he tapped the shoulder of the man playing the organ, and got the shock of his life! For as the man looked up, our friend saw that the man that had been playing the organ is himself! As the two men stared at each other, an angel appeared and cleared up the confusion.

He turned to the man that had just arrived and said, “The man you saw playing the organ is the prototype of who God created you to be. And the music you heard him playing is the music that God created you to play. God wanted to be worshipped on earth with that level of quality of music, and He created you specifically to fill that purpose. But you got to the world, and allowed the adulation and reward of men to distract you from becoming who you were created to be. Here is the man you should have been, but you fell short of the standard and purpose for your creation.”

LESSON: The man you must NEVER meet - is the man you were created to be. Who were you created to be? What exactly did God have in mind when he formed you? Are you fulfilling that purpose today? Do you even know the purpose? Have you been distracted by the adulation of man? Have you allowed the pursuit of wealth to take you off course? Are you constantly going back to God to get your bearing that you are on course? If you died tonight (God forbid) would you be the man you were meant to be, or would you meet the man you were meant to be? Please reflect deeply while you still have the opportunity to do so.

“So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:28-29)

Friends, this is indeed how to get ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ. God bless.

Anonymous

Why Smart People Make Bad Entrepreneurs

One of the most counterintuitive traits that can hurt entrepreneurs is smarts.

Yes, the more successful you are and the more talents you have, the harder it is to run a business.

While you may think that being smart, motivated, and talented would logically make someone the best possible candidate for entrepreneurship, unfortunately, this is often not the case.

The "I'm better than everyone at every task" challenge

The smart-people problem starts back in school when the dreaded "group projects" are first assigned. Knowing the 80/20 rule for work (80% of all work is done by 20% of the people), what do you think happens in every group project? The smartest and most talented people in each group decide that they are going to do the lion's share of the work.

They don't want to risk their grade in the class by dividing the work equally and hoping that Timmy (the guy who is absent from class two days a week on average and sleeps through class on the other three days) does his part well, if he remembers to do it at all. In school, there isn't any benefit in trying to get Timmy up to speed quickly. Forget that — the smart people just take over and do the whole project themselves.

And thus begins the smart-people work cycle. The smartest people do just about everything better than most everyone else. They write better, plan better, and reason better. They are better, until it comes to running a business. Then, they are not better; they are screwed.

There are only 24 hours in each day and a person does need to sleep, eat, shower, and do certain other things. So, each day, this smart person tries to do everything himself, because he can't stand someone else doing a job badly. Then, he is stuck with the one-man band "job-business" and ends up not being able to grow.

Why slackers can reign supreme as entrepreneurs

It is interesting, but actually, some of the slackers are better suited for entrepreneurship than the "smart" people. Why? They figured out early on to surround themselves with smart people who would do the work. They know how to delegate and, sometimes, how to manipulate other people into doing things that they don't want to do.

You're only as smart as you can automate

Ideally, smart people would just be able to convey their talents to others. But since the smart people are so used to doing everything themselves, they don't learn the key skills for making their business successful, including automating and delegating as many tasks as possible. As a smart person, you need to use your smarts and talents to boil down their essence in an easy-to-follow format that anyone can replicate.

Too smart for your own good

Smart and talented people also often have a flair for the unusual, complicated, or different. They don't like to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid), which is required to make a business succeed.

If you think of the assembly line in a fantastic manufacturing plant or the global presence of McDonald's, they both seem complex, but in reality, they are a series of incredibly simple functions. Every single task is broken down into easy-to-follow steps. The assembly line worker repeatedly performs a few tasks that are specifically defined. So does the McDonald's cook, cashier, and drive-thru order taker. There is little input from these individuals, as everything has been standardized for them.

Some of the largest, most successful businesses in the world aren't staffed in their majority by the smartest people. They are actually staffed in large part by regular, average (and sometimes stupid) people. These successful entities have just a few people who are smart enough to standardize, automate, and delegate the majority of the tasks in a way that can't be screwed up by their average employees.

So, being smart or talented isn't going to help you unless you can use those smarts to figure out a way to simplify those tasks that will make a business successful. This isn't easy, because it goes against everything that you have ever done and is counter to how you were taught to think. However, it is necessary for a business to succeed and why smarts and talent alone don't predict entrepreneurial success.

Too much to lose

Another issue with the smart people starting businesses is that they often have the most to lose. The smarter you are — unless you have the social graces of a wild ape — the more options you have available to you. You will be able to make a lot of money in a variety of fields and have room in your career to become promoted and make even more money.

This means that when you start a business, you have a lot more to risk than someone who makes less money and has fewer career options. This is often referred to as the "golden handcuffs" dilemma. Because you have more to risk, this means that you need to have a business opportunity that is going to provide an even bigger reward for it to be worth it to you.

If you make $250,000 a year (or have an opportunity to do so), your business is going to have to be five times more successful than the business of someone making $50,000 a year to get the same return. Additionally, it is a lot harder to found a business that will double your yearly profit when you make $250,000 a year than it would be if you make $50,000 a year.

So, with the most to lose, a wide range of other options available, and the penchant for more intricate, complex endeavors, don't be surprised when the person "Most Likely to Succeed" from high school ends up in corporate America and one of the more average students finds success in his or her own business.

Source: The Entrepreneur