Many things in life are like a complete donut sometimes, alluring, but not good for you, vice versas.
Following on from the concept of
starting small, there are other enlightening concepts that go against that belief. Say the best way to learn is to get your hands dirty, best way to learn swimming is to get in the water! Or, just jump and the net will appear (er, but they even wrote a book on it).
My first job after I graduate landed me in a site with 7,000 staffs, and my very next job? A whopping site of 15 staffs. One an established corporation, the other is a start-up; and yes there is a difference. One emphasis on sustainability, and the other plainly.. just suck it and see approach (thus explains the many times when I got dumped in the deep end, expected to swim right away)
To me life is just a matter of perspective. You go through a journey of many things in life, and there's no one answer that will explain away all your joys and miseries in life. You can certainly chew on a snail if you're a 5yo, but you certainly wouldn't want to risk looking like an idiot playing in a puddle when you're 30yo.
Say a start-up will often have reckless entrepreneurs trying to float the enterprise, as it turns into an established corporate, there will then be many headcounts working to keep the company in one piece as if their life depends on it. As for the entrepreneur? Read the story about Yahoo!
Everything has its lifecycles; it's yours to take, whether if you want to die as if you haven't lived, or die trying. Life's a choice.
Lately.. I have been pondering about the question, whether if there's any benefits being on the bottom/mid-level of the foodchain. 
