Yet, on occasion, I still meet many excited idea people who believe so firmly in their idea, that they block out everything to pursue the costly patenting, product development and more, only to end up broke and drowning in inventory of a gadget that has no buyers.

I do advise protecting your IP, I do advise spending wisely on R&D but there is nothing to prevent you from doing the basic components of a business plan and market research prior to spending a single dime.  You can uncover need in the market without divulging your IP and you will certainly learn key insights from your potential customers that can drive the product design so it is even better than you originally imagined.  Do your market research first and everything else will work better and you will save money and time.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/05/unnovation.html

There is a particularly fun show I catch now and then called “On Surfari” where a young couple travels the world surfing. One particular episode they surf great breaks in India on what is one of the saddest and most polluted beaches I’ve ever seen. The town council is excited to hear why these Americans chose to visit and surf – something rarely seen in this area. They invite the local news people, cameras and hosts to tell them how they can attract more tourists and more revenues as a result. The couple tells them to start with cleaning the beaches, providing infrastructure like waste management, educating locals on pollution and sanitary behaviors and giving locals other services to keep the beach free of abuse while providing jobs for the poor. Well, the council members were clearly not happy with this basic advice. They wanted to hear about advertising and spreading the word outside the country and more. They didn’t get that without a clean, safe, sanitary beach, they would never get the draw needed. 

Why was this advice so poorly received? Is someone telling you something you need to hear but you just aren’t accepting?