Yes, starting a new business involves a certain amount of risk. But so does working for someone else. And the risks associated with being captain of your own fate may be far more manageable and far more acceptable than the risks associated with corporate layoffs and downturns, which are far more likely to be out of your control.

Much of this book is dedicated to demonstrating how go-it-alone entrepreneurs manage and limit the risk associated with their new enterprises. They do this every day in a thousand different ways: gaining actual customer experience with their proposed business concepts before making major commitments to the business, choosing business arenas that have great flexibility in the event they need to shift gears in their quest to succeed, launching low-cost product or service extensions that diminish reliance on a single revenue stream, and so on.

In considering your own venture, don’t necessarily assume that the intitiative will involve high risk. Instead, repeatedly ask the question “How can I minimize the risk associated with this new activity?” Once you have acted on every possible mechanism to reduce risks, ask, “Is the risk associated with this proposed venture actually greater than the risks involved in the way I earn my living today?” Unfortunately, many employees are finding that they are already living with considerable, often unrecognized risk. It may be that earning your livelihood by becoming captain of your own well-tested ship is less of a risk.

MYTH 3: THE SIZE OF THE EMPLOYEE PARKING LOT MATTERS

Unfortunately, the notion that successful businesses typically require many employees is a bias that permeates U.S. business

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