(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I'm frustrated. I'm 47 and still a job slave. The job's not bad. But I want more! I get ideas! Big ideas! Exciting ideas! Multibillion-dollar-business ideas! I've never been able to bring any of them to life. I need the opportunity to present my ideas to someone in a position to develop them into a flourishing business, but I don't know who this someone is. Can you clear up this mystery for me? Water Man

Dear H2O: You're in obvious need of a good venture capitalist, but VCs, as seasoned entrepreneurs call them, are a hard lot. Their credo: An idea is not a business. They love your enthusiasm. (They really do; it may eventually pay the bills.) But they've seen "multibillion-dollar-business ideas" about, oh, 14,459 times--and 14,458 of those were, um, not promising. Next!

If you want them to help you start a company, here is a bare-bones outline of what you will need: (1) a management team with proven experience in marketing, finance, and manufacturing--all three, not just one or two; (2) a 30-page business plan complete with financial projections two years out, or five if possible; (3) a realistic assessment of why your product is better than your rivals', and an honest analysis of where the competitive potholes lie (and don't dare claim there aren't any--you are dealing with gimlet-eyed grownups now); and (4) a truly no-baloney explanation of why you are the best guy in the world to run this particular show. There is a saying among VCs: "If the light ain't on at the top, it's dim all the way down."

Once you have all that in hand, there is seed capital available. A couple of useful phone numbers: The U.S. Small Business Administration has poured more than $41 billion (yes, billion) into startups in the past decade. For information, call 800-8-ASK-SBA. You might also ask the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies, at 703-683-1601, for a directory, updated each year, of private investors in new ventures--how much they spent, in which industries, and where. In your home state of Washington, hmmm, I notice these folks have forked out $85 million since 1985.

Good luck!

Dear Annie: Is there any recourse for a manager wrongly charged with sex discrimination? What should his actions be to protect his 20-year career? Frantic

Dear Frantic: First, take a deep breath. That's right. In, out, in, out. As you have no doubt noticed, I condensed your excruciatingly detailed two-page, single-spaced cri de coeur into a mere two sentences. You did set forth a couple of salient facts: (1) The woman who is accusing you of sex discrimination (since you didn't promote her because you didn't like her work, you say, and that was the sum total of it) is bringing the union in; and (2) The CEO of the company is now getting mixed up in this. Fine. Relax. Relax.

Take some comfort in the fact that you have so far taken all the steps that can protect you from a lawsuit, including getting the human resources department involved and talking frankly with your boss. You personally can be sued for sex discrimination, as can your company. (You can also, of course, be fired.) But--calm down, breathe deeply, pay attention--in the event things get as far as a courtroom, the burden of proof is on the female employee, who must show that she was treated less well than a similarly situated guy, that you intended to discriminate against her, and that you had no legitimate business reason for denying her the promotion. The law is very clear on this issue, and if your letter to me is accurate, this employee will have a tough time proving anything of the kind.

When a company believes that a manager accused of discrimination has done nothing wrong, it's customary for the employer to back that manager 100%, including covering his (or her) legal costs if both the manager and the company are sued. So if you are innocent, you probably have nothing to worry about. Right? Of course, you're the only one who really knows for sure. You and, of course, the women who have worked for you--all of them, not just this one.

Dear Annie: I am very good at what I do, in my small niche of the world, but I have never been able to adapt to bureaucracy, b.s., and people who are not genuine. Any advice? Ontario

Dear Ontario: If you ever figure out how to banish bureaucracy and b.s. from the working world, we all fervently hope you will get in touch. In the meantime, a few thoughts that I hope will be helpful. Kevin Sullivan, who has been in charge of human resources at Apple Computer and Digital Equipment, has run into your sort once or twice (your sort being: technically terrific, hates dealing with people). Says Sullivan, who is now a human resources consultant at Watson Wyatt in San Francisco: "He's probably had a bad experience--some insincere person who promised and didn't deliver. But you have to ask yourself, 'Am I going to let this one experience color everything else going forward?'"

But Sullivan also says: "Maybe it isn't so much that this guy doesn't like the b.s.; it's that he's afraid he's not good at it. He's outside his area of competence." Maybe you just need more practice. Jim Paisley, a clinical psychologist and executive coach at Murro Consulting in Phoenix, classes you among the "superstar antagonists," e.g., people with great technical skills who lack patience with human foibles. He suggests that every time someone gets on your nerves, you rank the actual importance of the incident on a scale of 1 to 10. "Most of the everyday b.s. that annoys people is really maybe a 2, or at most a 3," he says. "If you treat everything like a 10, you're headed for a heart attack."