In my opinion,
As long as you have a steady source of income that you can rely on, i.e. A decent severance package, savings, supplemental income from snemma, and / or spouse is bringing home some bread$$$.
Any combination of those could help the decision in favor of competing. If not then for me it would come down to getting another job to make sure everyone that depends on me is taken care of, and if competing was in mycards, then I'd go for it!!