The one point I will make about mutual funds is there are many on the list I posted with acceptable management fees, in the 0.02-0.6% range that perform well and get you instant diversification to an extent. In fact, all the funds on that list have to meet certain strict criteria including management fees. A professional stock picker with vast resources has to only outperform you doing it alone by the management fee he charges for you to be money ahead. Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable putting my first few thousand bucks in one stock, no matter how big or established it is but there are many ways to do this right. It's more important I think that you're doing it than it is how you're doing it but it's also important to make wise educated choices that suit your comfort level.
Greg makes a very good point about time. The general rule (not sure it's my rule) is to be more into stocks the younger you are as you have time to recover from a downturn. As you age you slowly get more conservative by transitioning to bonds. A withdrawl rate of 4% of your retirement account balance per year is a common number to ensure you don't outlive your money. You can use this handy calculator to figure how to achieve your retirement goals:
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/retir...entplanner.jsp
I think Greg's best point is about how you FEEL when you begin to build up a savings.
Once you begin to see a growing balance in there you develop a respect for the money and work harder to make it grow.