Anyway, I've been introduced to several different ideas at various times -- "Hey man, I got this awesome idea, wanna get in on it with me?" And sure, some of the ideas weren't bad, but they had absolutely no idea about anything related to making a business work, and I knew they were guaranteed to fail. Usually I pass without much thought.

Once I was asked to get involved with a company by people who did know how to create a startup. But I was making decent money at the job I held at the time, and I didn't like that the people at this startup were hesitant to make any solid offers, just vaguely worded stuff about how they didn't have much to pay until they got investor money and that I would receive a share in the company... This was several years back, the company did get investor money, they brought on many more people, and got to a point where it was eventually sold. To the best of my knowledge everybody who was involved made out fairly well. Had I gotten involved then, I would have probably made substantially more money than I did working at the job I had.

Ask yourself this: Are you looking for reasons to take the offer, or reasons to pass on it? And why?

It's a big enough obstacle that they haven't quit their jobs to focus on it. That says a lot to me.