The little guys working the lines usually don't have safety nets and credentials—inherited money, money from previously founded business, mentors, a reputation, or even supportive relatives—so their fear of failure is somewhat justified.
The days of retiring with a gold watch and pension were gone long before I ever hit the market decades ago unfortunately.
It bugs me that it's often the poor that want free markets and cheer most for it, and shun co-op stores. The system is betraying them, they should just get away from it and focus on positive systems like co-op self-sustaining communities.
This is a bit of pseudo-economics that's popular in the business community nowadays. Risk can be priced, in that it costs money to shift risk to someone else and you can charge a premium for taking on risk yourself. But statements like "only through that risk do we see reward" are just mumbo-jumbo.
Of course, you can construe any activity to have some risk. After all, there's always the possibility that your currency collapses, or something. However, ignoring that sort of possibility, risk is not necessary to make money in a capitalist system.
Or to pose another example, starting a restaurant is probably riskier than starting a B2B software company, but also probably much less financially rewarding.
The main "problem" with capitalistic business is in expectations. People need to realize that every day comes with risk. And only through that risk do we see reward. But the little guy working the line, he just wants a paycheck with no risk. Unfortunately there would be very little reward if that were so.