Don&#x27;t forget about David Choe, the artist who graffiti&#x27;d Facebook for almost $500M in stock compensation. To quote the (not great) movie &quot;Boiler Room&quot;, &quot;you see stuff like that and it just plants seeds.&quot;<p>Was Choe&#x27;s comp worth near $500M? Hell no. Is he laughing to the bank? Of course. Is life fair? Hell no. Were other early employees screwed by the Choe&#x27;s comp? Probably but they made out more than OK. I don&#x27;t hear Taner complaining. Roll the dice. Make your decisions. Live with them.<p>In 2004 I turned down a job offer from Google. On paper, I&#x27;d be worth lotsa millions. In reality, I would have gained zero. Why? Because the team I interviewed with was full of jerks, and I would have quit before my 1 year cliff had I accepted the offer. Instead, I stayed and worked at my then current job. I made a lot of good professional contacts and have never looked back.<p>Would my life have been different if I accepted the Google offer and hit the IPO payday lottery? Possibly. I&#x27;m not sure. I don&#x27;t think about it at all. I moved on over a decade ago. I&#x27;m quite happy with my life. There&#x27;s more to life than being a &quot;early XYZ employee&quot; or &quot;pre-IPO employee&quot;. Notorious BIG had it wrong. You don&#x27;t have to slang rock or have a good jump shot. You can live nicely and happily making assists.