Aspiring entrepreneurs often ask, how do you make that leap? When do you know you’ve got the right idea?

First, let me give you some background on me. I’m pretty risk averse. I’m a midwesterner and yes, I think this is a good thing. I grew up in a family of savers. And surprise, I am a frugal person. I don’t take financial risks.

While attending business school, I became very intrigued by the idea of entrepreneurship. To start your own company and to be your own boss seemed very glamorous. But every single business idea I ever had I could talk myself out of in about 3 minutes. I’m an expert at playing devil’s advocate and I was fairly certain I’d never be able to get over my own doubts in order to take a risk as great as starting a company. I was certain that I just didn’t have what it took to make that leap.

Enter Quincy.

After coming up with the initial idea that women’s work apparel was broken, and that this was an area that I was very passionate about (fashion, women in the workplace), I couldn’t shake my excitement.

My co-founder and I did a lot of market research in a period of about 3 weeks. We spoke to over 100 women in our target demographic. We spoke to men who knew nothing about our market, but thought it was a brilliant idea. We talked to former professors. We even held a focus group with women we didn’t know and set up interviews with industry experts. Every person we talked to told us we had to do it (I hear this doesn’t happen very often).

We spent those 3 weeks trying to poke holes in our idea and giving ourselves time to change our minds. But we didn’t. The more time we thought about our idea, the more excited we became.

I realized I had to do it because it was an idea I couldn’t talk myself out of.

Fellow entrepreneurs out there: how did you decide to take the plunge? And those of you who are considering entrepreneurship, what keeps you from going for it?