USA Today has been running a weekly series (Mondays) "Small Business Start-up," exploring issues new entrepreneurs face. 

Here's the opening for this week's piece, and I trust it resonates with the purposes of this blog:

"In some cases, economic necessity has been the mother of
re-invention. It has forced people to pursue careers they might never have
considered if they hadn't gotten — or quit before getting — the ax."

And, a little later in that same article:  [career-changers] "agree that if they hadn't been pushed, they never would have made the
leap.

Andrea Kay, author of Life's a Bitch and Then You Change
Careers, says many people hang onto jobs they don't like, oblivious to the
fact that their unhappiness — which they mistakenly think they can hide — hurts
their performance and attitude.

"'Typically, not until someone is forced out of what they've
been accustomed to doing do they feel the need to change,' Kay says."

And,  "In a surprising number of cases, we're happier — /if, after
the shock, anger and fear, someone is willing to see there's an opportunity to
do something different,/ Kay says. 'Then they ask, 'Why did I wait so long?'"

Why did I wait so long to try it on my own? 

'Nuff said.  The link below takes you to that article, and from there to the others in the series.  You'll also link with Rhonda Abrams' on-line series of videos and tutorials on small business start-ups.  Beyond that, you'll tap into case studies and readers sharing their own start-up stories.

To read the USA Today article, Oct. 12, 2009, page 1