" When's the last time you worked until tomorrow and had a great time? How many meetings have you had in the last week with more than four people that went nowhere and accomplished nothing? More than five people? Eight? Have you ever heard your boss say, "Well, if we run low on cash, I'll just take a salary cut, eat less, and tap my savings a little more?" Are you passionate about what your company does? Do you have enough skin in the game where you start to think, "Wow, if we really kick ass, I could buy that car/house/island" or are you kissing all the ass you can to make sure your boss and coworkers give you good reviews during bonus time so you can just pay off your credit card bill?
(snip)
When you talk about what you do, do you get so infectiously excited about it that, all of the sudden, everyone around you is talking about it, too?"

--Charles Odonnell, This is Going to Be Big, expressing the start-up fever so many ex-Yahoo friends are in the grip of these days.