Except...I didn't tell you that your investment would be held by Mt. Gox. You lost your investment.
There is always risk. Always. 97% of startups fail. They are extremely high risk. The earlier you buy in, the higher the potential payout, but the more likely you are to be backing one that will fail. Even the successful ones, after dilution, may or may not be worth more than the cash over how long it took to IPO/be bought out.
You say you get to make risky investments with time; yes...but that's even worse than money. Money is fungible. Time isn't. You have a set amount in life.
Having a 97% chance you're wasting it (actually, higher, since dilution + etc means even a 'success' may mean you made less than the equivalent cash over how long you worked at the place, the extra hours you put in compared to working on side projects, etc) are some pretty long odds.