So many missed opportunities

News recently emerged that Google tried to purchase the company Groupon for an estimated 6 billion dollars. Groupon is a site that offers special deals for local restaraunts and businesses to consumers that sign up to their email list. For a company that is only 2 years old 6 billion dollars is a huge offer. They however declined under speculation that they would soon be working towards an IPO. While I am impressed by Groupon's success, it has made me look back and analyze some of the opportunities I've missed out on. About a year and a half ago I was working for my cousin's publishing company in Chicago. He asked me to design a website for a company that would have essentially been a competitor to Groupon. He had a little bit different business model that would have likely allowed him to achieve some pretty good success. If he could have even achieved half the success Groupon achieved, that could have meant billions. I began creating a mock-up for the site, only to find my cousin's interested dwindled. I was just enjoying being in Chicago and had plenty of other work to keep me busy, so I pretty much dropped the idea. Now in retrospect, I wish I would have pushed it on him more. He has lots of resources, and it would have taken very little for him to launch the start-up. I have had similar start-up opportunities in the past that I've always given up on for one reason or another. Seeing all these missed opportunities is really beginning to motivate me to do more with my ideas. Now if only I could meet some angel investors.