I get kudos for having innovative ideas. I like the idea of me as innovator. When people call me an innovator, I get that “I’m a rock star” feeling.

Sadly, I’m not sure I’ve ever had an original thought.

How can I be perceived as an innovator without having had an original thought? More on that in a minute.

I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to believe I’m innovative. Of course, in our profession, plenty of people view themselves as traditionalists. They like the way things are and hope they stay that way. However, there are plenty of lawyers like me—innovators—and we like the idea of doing things in a new and different way.

Us innovators like staying at the cutting (bleeding?) edge and implementing strategies and tactics that put us ahead of the pack.

I’m frequently asked where I get innovative ideas. How do I dream things up? Some lawyers want to know how to leapfrog the other guy and get out front. I’ll share with you the source of my innovations.

Two Ways to Innovate

There are two major approaches to innovating:

First, you can think up new ideas. You can be the person who figures out what’s next and make it happen. You can be a thought leader with excellent execution skills. Sadly, that approach hasn’t worked for me. Coming up with new ideas is hard—way too hard for me.

Second, you can steal good ideas. This is my approach.

Stealing is easy and cheap and simply requires reading about others and keeping your eyes and ears open. I’ve been stealing good ideas for a long time.

Back in the mid-90s, I read about an insurance company, USAA, going paperless. It had the largest office building in the world and was able to receive an overnight delivery of a document and have it accessible to everyone in the building within a matter of minutes. USAA did it by scanning the document and putting it on its computer network.

At that time, my firm was opening overnight packages and making copies of documents and hand delivering them to the attorneys and paralegals involved in the case. I was impressed by what USAA was doing, and we stole the idea. We’ve been paperless for nearly 20 years.

That’s the tip of the iceberg of ideas I’ve stolen. I’ve taken innovative compensation systems and management systems from others and put them to use in our business. I’ve grabbed more marketing ideas than you can count from other businesses. We steal good ideas left and right.

I suppose I should be embarrassed when people refer to me as innovative. I’m not. I just nod and smile and look at them like they’re exactly right.

Where to Find Ideas to Steal

You too can steal good ideas. It’s especially important to steal if you aren’t very good at thinking up your own new ideas.

Here’s where I’ve stolen my best stuff:

• Inc. magazine has always been a good source. I’ve been stealing from it for years.
• Fast Company is another good one. I receive the magazine online and take notes, and I steal its best stuff.
• Vistage was my single best source for five years. I was a member of one of its professionally led mastermind groups and stole more excellent stuff than I can remember. I got huge value from the group.
• Seth Godin, Tom Peters, and Michael Gerber have all been endless sources of ideas. Go back and read everything they’ve written and your head will spin. Each of them has created a great volume of work filled with ideas.
• Manager Tools provides amazingly simple tips and tools for managing a team. It’s not aimed at lawyers, but it’s perfect for us. I steal its stuff all day long.
• Mixergy provides a behind-the-scenes look at technology startups and the approaches they’re taking to growing their businesses.
• This Week in Startups host Jason Calacanis provides lots of opportunities to steal with each new episode.
• This Week in Technology from Leo Laporte keeps me up to speed on technology and is an endless source of technology ideas.

While stealing ideas is easier than coming up with your own, it’s still work. It takes time to sort through what others are saying and doing and then to reverse engineer their approach. Once you’ve figured it out, you’ve got to apply what you’ve learned to your business in your industry.

Stealing ideas is an important key to staying ahead of the curve. It’s how many industry leaders gain their leadership position. You can do it too.

Start devoting some time to keeping up with what others away from our industry are doing. Watch them, learn from them, and then put their excellent work to good use for your benefit. Go steal some ideas today.