see, i work for a big company and it's even worse there. i am a shareholder but because of all the sec crap i never get any real information (see http://www.tehsux.com/archives/000024.html) - the funny thing is i STARTED working for this company when it was a startup, and through mergers and acquisitions, while maintaining the same job and never quitting or being laid off, i've worked for EIGHT different companies since 1998. let me restate, i've worked for the same company, but worked for eight different companies at the same time. so i got to watch at each juncture what happens at every tier of existence. i went from knowing everything about the company and hanging out regularly with the exec staff after work, to having a boss who works in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY. without ever leaving, i went from a company with less than 500 people in it to a company with nearly 50000 people in it. to be honest, i don't feel any more job security or anything else. at least at the startup to mid-tier level of the company, i was able to have some sort of idea of how things were going, etc. but with this huge company i never have any idea. they keep laying off people but not doing anything to actually enhance operations, as if having a lean staff = running a tight ship... anyway, my point is that even big 'stable' companies aren't a guaranteed paycheck these days, rands, and in fact, startups (with no stanford MBA exec staff) may have the ability to dynamically adapt more quickly to the changing economic environment.