I'm right there with you... except for my situation I'm putting in more sweat equity than $$$... but it's still a risk.

We found a niche in the industry my wife is in, and started designing the killer app to fill it... now we're 9 months after the first line of code and have 50 some odd users, with the list growing every week- but it's hard nonetheless...

You gotta remember- there is no reward without risk... I'm sure you're old enough to know that from experiance- but it's good to hear someone else say it- it either makes you take the jump or crawl off the diving board and head for the wading pool

don't know what the venture you're thinking about is, but take a read at this:

http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html