I agree 100% with this. Employees should be suspicious that they have access to an investment nobody else does - invest now!<p>I&#x27;ve seen countless friends get burned in various ways believing they would be getting rich soon from their options and then fizzle.  Either through the company just never having a liquidity event or being sold for less than previous valuation rounds.<p>The worst is I&#x27;ve seen people reject job offers that were far superior in cash compensation because they had a recent big option grant.  A friend of mine stayed on at a place even though he didn&#x27;t get a cash raise but instead was given some options that vested over a few years in addition to the options he already had, some of which were vested.  Did it not ring a bell that a company that can&#x27;t give him cash but can instead offer compensation out of thin air in the form of options is in trouble?<p>And then there are the golden handcuffs were an employee is scared to leave because their options have too high a fair market value and their tax costs would be considerable.  Further limiting their career growth.<p>I&#x27;ve seen the other side too where friends have taken home a really nice pay day after liquidity - but it is the exception and not the rule.<p>I recommend joining young companies that are willing to pay you a lot of cash for your exceptional ability and experience (execution is critical at this stage across the entire company from engineering to sales) and maybe take it easy on the option grants.  Some stock is fun but don&#x27;t count on getting rich on it.