I resigned from my 8 year career at a large financial software firm to work on my start-up full time this past January. It is definitely a risk and most people who work in a large stable corporation won't make that move. They thought I was insane to leave a stable high paying job for a risky and unknown venture. I don't know if I'll succeed yet, but I'm sure it was the right move for me. But there is a company full of people I left who will never make that kind of leap.