I am still not clear how things might turn out. I have do everything "right" to finally put myself in a position to restart my business then out of the blue a former colleague comes along and is looking into taking the opportunity away. I can't give too many details but what's frustrating is that this person knows that starting this business was my dream and I have spent the last 5 years of my life working on it.

I have a number of choices in terms of what I can do next. I am reaching out to another former colleague, who I suspect might be involved with the other former colleague that is trying to take away my opportunity. I emailed this person a couple of days ago. He used to work for me. I gave him a great reference that allowed him to get a great job. He was very thankful and said he would help me in any way he can. Well now he can help me in any way he can but he has not responded, so I sent another email this email and I may call him this weekend. Having him in my corner would pretty much seal my deal. The problem is that he has a side business that might benefit from aligning with the other guy.

I have been primarily focusing on my challenges but this other person also has his challenges. He would need to come up with a fair amount of money, which he would have to get from someone else, to even get a right to use the idea. He would need to come up with a fair amount of money to pay other people to work on developing the product. He would have to come up with a fair amount of money to pay employees. He would have to find people who had specific skills that are not easy to find. Also, even if he develops the product there is no guarantee that there will be a market for the product, especially a large one. He is not about to quit his job to work on this full-time and he doesn't have the requisite experience.

I can imagine all sorts of worst case scenarios for myself but I also need to think about worst case scenarios for him. The odds are against him. I am going to noodle on this a bit more. Thanks PC for giving me a place to vent and structure & assess my thoughts.