Conversely, dropping a steady job for a crappy idea might be just the kind of motivation you might need to become successful. Full disclosure: I'm trying to convince myself of this every single morning.
Agreed. I can't imagine many people are going to be willing to stake much effort on an idea they aren't excited about.
An exciting idea doesn't have to be a good idea. A lot of dumb ideas seem like good ideas until you're half way through executing on them.
Whether or not having a good idea is critical to a good startup, that can be debated. But few people can muster up motivation to take risks on ideas that don't excite them...
I also think there are too many cases where people just drop everything and go with an idea that is doomed to fail. It seems like there is competing advice between "do your homework" posts and "go for it!" posts.
It's definitely risky to do something like this. You have to be that sure and believe in yourself that you can pull it off. I am trying to do the same exact thing... move from a regular, steady job to starting my own thing. Thus far I have been working on it on the side but at some point I want to make a full switch to working on my company full time and support myself + family.
I started my company around "Let's build an awesome company we want to work at, making products that people want." That was exciting enough for me to quit my big corporate job.
You need to have an idea that you can believe has a chance of being successful.