[paulhauggis]

It's even worse if you actually work on these ideas. I've done it before and I won't ever do it again.

What ends up happening is that you start working on it and the "ideas person" doesn't have any time invested in it and gets bored when it's not finished within a short amount of time. If they do decide to move on, you can't do anything with it unless you want to either give them a percentage or go through a lawsuit.

I worked on a project for 6 months only to have the ideas guy tell me that he would rather focus on things that are making him money now, like computer tech support (this was back in 2003). His business went under a year or so later.

I get approached a couple of times a month like this and I usually end up telling them that I am working on my own projects and I don't want to lose focus. It's never been a problem.