I've been talking to a lot of founders lately, and there's this nagging question that keeps coming up: is starting a business still worth the risk when most new ventures fail within five years? A friend of mine quit his job two years ago, burned through his savings, and barely broke even last quarter — he says he'd do it again, but his wife isn't so sure. On the other hand, I've seen a few local shops here in Austin that started with a small loan and now employ over a dozen people, which makes me wonder if survivorship bias is distorting our view. What do you think — does the potential payoff justify the gamble for most people today, or is it smarter to build skills and savings first?