[falcolas]

Most business owners are risking very little out-of-pocket money. Most are either funded via business loans against the business assets, or from investors.

Only a small number of bootstrapped companies (few of whom are represented on Hacker News) are risking their own money, and even then only the brave (or foolish) push it to the point where they can't sustain themselves if the business fails.

[lujim]

Don't forget about opportunity cost. It's common to discount opportunity cost and equity as "not as real as the money you spend on your credit card". However when the house payment keeps showing up every month and you decided to strike out on your own instead of taking that $6000 to $10000 per month you could have made in a stable software development job you are going out of pocket whether you realize it or not. That $300k you missed out on because you failed to cover expenses for 4 years when you could have been working as a software dev in some employers cubicle are real dollars.

Also some business owners do leverage some retirement savings when starting a business. It's a pretty good way to get low interest money. They can sustain if things fail, but they certainly feel it if they fail.