There 's a boom in entrepreneurship, and no matter what your age and skill set might be, you can take advantage of the boom to get more of what you want out of life. Seventy percent of young people say they 'd like to work for themselves. One of the most popular forms of retirement among Baby Boomers is to not really retire but work for themselves.

The good news is that starting your own company is easier than ever, because the technology is cheaper, doors are opening wider to newbies, and the instability of the work force in general makes owning your own company look not as shaky as it used to.

Here are some new ways to think about entrepreneurship that might get you moving on an idea:

Don 't wait to start until you 're sure you 'll succeed

You 'll never know if you 'll succeed, and sometimes the path to success is by way of something that never does. An example is Justin Beck, a student at UW-Madison who started a company to let people chat more easily on the Internet. The company didn 't see the light of day, but the process of putting it together helped Beck build another: Parallel Kingdom, which lets people play games with GPS over their mobile phone.

Beck 's process is a good example of how the definitions of failure and success are not so clear; any path can lead to something new, and better, if you 're open to avenues that twist and turn.

You don 't have to take a huge plunge

Guy Kawasaki has written eight books about business, and he just launched a new business called Alltop.com, that is, among other things, an easy-to-use on-ramp to the world of blogging. Kawasaki approached his Internet startup in the same way that a college kid would: He organized information in a new way, tested it, added some new ideas, tested, and he 's growing the site through word of mouth.

This should inspire everyone who has thought of a business but figured it was too big to try. The Internet favors the quick, flexible, not-so-tested methods of doing business, where you learn as you go and make changes all the time.

You don 't need to spend a lot of money

The Internet is, of course, a cheap way to start a company because many of the tools are available for free. But people are starting scrappy offline businesses with little money down as well. Troy Vosseller and his partner started up Sconnie Nation, a Wisconsin-themed t-shirt company, in their UW-Madison dorm room by putting in $300 each. From that initial investment, they 've generated $300,000 in revenue.

You have more time than you think

Vosseller is now in his second year of a JD/MBA program at UW-Madison, and if he has enough time to run a business and get an MBA and a law degree, then you probably have time to test the waters of entrepreneurship yourself.

A lot of your ability to start a new company comes from figuring out what is important and what isn 't, and what you can delegate: "As the business continues to grow it forces me to implement new systems or hire people to do different tasks because I 'm not able to do all the day-to-day things. There are things I 'd like to do with the business that I can 't because of my classes, " Vosseller said.

Be clear on your goals

What you really want is not a good brand, but a good life.

Starting a company doesn 't have to mean you 're building the next Microsoft. It simply gives you an opportunity to learn and grow, and offers you the chance to work with your friends and create the lifestyle you want.

The diverse goals of today 's entrepreneurs mean that most companies are a success in some way. If nothing else, it 's difficult to start a company and not learn a lot, given the amount of time and effort you put in. The self-knowledge and networking you get from a new venture mean that it 's easy to call yourself a success, even if you don 't earn any money.

Entrepreneurship can help you make a corporate job better as well

Once you know that you can start a business if you want to, you have the ability to demand a lot more from your corporate job. You can negotiate harder to get more interesting projects at work if you know you can always leave and do your own projects for a while.

You don 't really have a choice

We 're all entrepreneurs. Recognize that with no clear ladder to climb, you 're running your own "business " even if you never leave corporate life. And if you don 't want to launch a start-up, you could still end up functioning like an entrepreneur in today 's new workplace. There is no long-term stability, so the way you create job safety is with your skill set and your connections. You are the product, and you are the sales and marketing team for your product. On average, people today are changing jobs every two to five years, which means you 'll need to function like an entrepreneur nearly all the time if you 're going to bring in a steady paycheck.

Penelope Trunk is a national career columnist who took her own advice about finding a work-life balance and moved to Madison from New York. She has founded three companies and is the author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. Read her blog at http://blog.penelopetrunk.com