agreed, this has changed drastically in the last 25 years. Sucky credit has gone from a minor annoyance to a pretty serious life issue. If you are letting your credit suffer for your company, you are doing it wrong. That sort of risk is precisely what investors are for. Working for a reduced salary, with pretty much zero job assurance, and bad or nonexistent bennies to begin with, and working nights and weekends, letting your personal and social life suffer, is punishment enough. If you get pressure to put more personal financial skin in the game, play good/bad cop with your spouse or life partner (ie use him/her as an ironclad limit on how far you can go towards financial armageddon)