These characters love to bandy this around because they've done it themselves, once upon a time, to establish their companies. BUT what they fail to mention is

These characters love to bandy this around because they've done it themselves, once upon a time, to establish their companies. BUT what they fail to mention is that they had a HUGE share in those fledgling companies at that time. Potential reward was HUGE so they put in the time and effort. Employees who join Alibaba aren't given a lick of equity these days.