Thirty-five years back, I went to work as the fourth person in a start-up (that&#x27;s still in business) and loved the fast-paced environment of a start-up life.  Fifteen years ago, I went to work for &quot;BigCo&quot;, and while our group was essentially an internally funded start-up, I hated the politics, especially as we acquired other companies and tried to integrate their software products into ours.<p>The good news is that succeeding at three of the four start-ups left me with enough stock options to fund (my share) of my next start-up with cash.  While it&#x27;s looking like I may not see a return on that investment, the product was certainly something the industry needs&#x2F;needed.  As a small boot-strapped company, it&#x27;s almost impossible to move an industry.<p>I&#x27;m currently working at a university and we&#x27;ve tailored the culture within our group to be much like you&#x27;d find in a start-up (the political machinations of a university can however be brutal).  In any case, I think I have a couple more ideas that could be turned into start-ups and enough working years left to build a couple more start-ups.  I can&#x27;t think of anything that&#x27;s more fun.<p>In contrast to you, I came from an upper-middle class family with a stay-at-home mom and a go-to-work dad.  Things were comfortable when I was at home but I&#x27;d have never asked any of my relatives for money to create a start-up and my parents were far more risk averse than I (originally they mildly disapproved of the risks I was taking but seem to have realized I always &quot;left myself an out&quot; so that in the worst possible outcome, I could take care of my wife and kids).<p>So it might be true that most kids these days have the money to be entrepreneurs, I say it was definitely in my genes.  (As an aside, in the &#x27;80s I think most of the start-ups I saw were people who were risking almost everything to get started because they had a vision - it&#x27;s much easier to fail if there are no consequences).