Rat race problems in life

I have been trying to get out of rat race but I'm afraid of business ideas as well, my friends (group A) want to start up a business together but i have already seen a business go down from (group B) good thing that i wasn't an active member of group B, group B consisted of 3-4 guys, they tried to do a resale business of scrapped wires and cables. One of the group B members was my close friends (9+ years of friendship) i used to work for him and work with him, the other members of group B didn't sign any bonded contracts and asked my close friend to take the risk, he fell for the trap and lost 40L, he later informed his parents about his debts, they helped him settle the debts. He couldn't pay me full wages at those times and i finally to concentrate on my own career. I still am friends with that close friend of mine from group B. Now comes the current situation, group A (my classmates, pursuing same career) wish to do a startup but we are blank and have no clues, where to begin, i did have some electronic items resale ideas but we still aren't sure about the future, I'm a bit scared about startups since my father will be retiring this year, i was originally planning to invest on gold bonds from RBI, i have zero knowledge about investments, got no time to explore share markets and stuff. For now I'm focused on setting my father's debts and later save something for my marriage, maybe later i will allot certain amount for the starup for group A, i would make sure that either it's profit or loss, i wouldn't risk everything on it, i hate gambling. I hate going to work on mondays, but i can't skip my responsibilities.