>The type of people who can't think originally enough to come up with their own idea are probably not going to execute it well either. * Ideas != execution. Th

>The type of people who can't think originally enough to come up with their own idea are probably not going to execute it well either. * Ideas != execution. They may be excellent executors but not good at ideas (Apple in the early days). * If they beat you to market see what works for them and what doesn't. * If you beat them to market use them as an example that the market is viable (competition is good for business). * If they do execution well, hire their best executors. It takes a company to embrace an idea, but a single person to execute part of that idea well; hire that person. * It is not stealing to learn from someone else's failures. Competitors are market sensors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer