If you attempt to protect an idea too early, you risk expending energy and resources protecting an unworthy, ill-formed idea.
When attempting to raise money, reticence to share your idea will be perceived as amateurish and will cause most sophisticated investors to assume you lack the maturity and judgment required to lead a successful adVenture.
We knew we'd need more funding to reach that goal. We also knew that the boom was going to end. Since we didn't expect investors' faith in our mission to survive the coming crash, we moved fast to raise funds while we could.
Well, when we got married in 1952, I told Susie I was going to be rich. That wasn't going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills in the right place at the right time. I was wired at birth to allocate capital and was lucky enough to have people around me early on - my parents and teachers and Susie - who helped me to make the most of that.