During the last weeks, I have been talking to several individuals who are eager to start their company. The discussions had one common thread: people are afraid to leave their safe, cushy job to jump into the deep end of the pool and start their company. To quote Fred Wilson, a VC: the three most addictive things in the world are heroin, carbohydrates and a monthly paycheck. The belief seems to be that starting a company requires risk taking which equates to leaving your job and going full hog on the startup. My approach has been to do what I could to disabuse the people I talk to about this being the right approach. Entrepreneurs are no risk takers, but rather risk mitigators. Often this means starting something on the side, while keeping your day job. There is little need to work on the startup full time while you are looking to achieve product-market fit. Of course, if things take off, you may need to increase the amount of time in the startup, but at that point the risk that you’re taking is much lower already. So, as a reflection for today: where are you holding yourself back because of your perception of the risk being unacceptable? Are you using this as an excuse to not do anything or are there ways in which you can move forward while mitigating risk?