Start-ups luring exec talent from web leaders like Yahoo! and eBay

Anyone can become tired after a long haul at a top-flight Internet company. Well, most anyone, probably. In increasing numbers, top executives at some of the world's best-known Internet companies are leaving the comfortable nests of employment to join start-up companies, taking large risks -- but also re-energizing the mind and body in the process.

Is this bad for companies like Yahoo! and eBay, which have seen some nice talent leave recently? No, not bad at all, as fresher incoming minds may be able to stir the pot and challenge the process a bit to ensure new ideas are sitting in front of, well, everyone. Risk-takers are often motivated not by money, but the potential for money and the possibility of being at the start of the next new hot web company. Sounds a little like the employment situation similar to the dot-com bubble of 2000? Not really -- this scenario happens in any industry by risk takers. I don't think the web "industry" has anything to do with it.

A normal corporate evolution is for some folks to just get tired and/or bored and in that vein, seek new challenges. A driving force many times is not sheer cash short-term, but potential sheer cash long-term. This sounds like a strategy I wish Wall Street would adhere to -- but purple cows will fly on broomsticks before then.