It depends. If the shareholders continually vote for a board that over extends, then the circumstances change and either a) profit! everyone retires early, or b

It depends. If the shareholders continually vote for a board that over extends, then the circumstances change and either a) profit! everyone retires early, or b) the share price collapses and everything turns to shit. Either way the board members will probably okay, and most of the shareholders probably didn't have their live savings all in that particular company. I guess this is why investing is a risk vs reward trade-off. If you're of the opinion that leaving some profit on the table beats shutting down, then you probably want to invest heavily in blue chip stocks. Others might have a different risk preference.