Now back to your question about contracting. Not long before this, I'd read some business book that advised against getting stock in a company as an employee.

Now back to your question about contracting. Not long before this, I'd read some business book that advised against getting stock in a company as an employee. The book said that as one individual, you couldn't really have much effect on the stock price, and you would be better off just negotiating a better cash deal. Something like contracting, or just getting a better salary. After all, this is the standard advice we give people joining startups, right? Get the cash, because that fabled upside is unlikely to ever happen. But sometimes I wonder what might have happened if I had pursued this Apple connection a bit more. I thought, "I might have become a billionaire!" And then I remember how much that book had influenced me. I probably would have told Steve, "You keep the stock. Just give me a little more cash." Based on how he treated some early Apple employees, I bet Steve would have been fine with that! https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+woz+you+give+him+zero https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+woz+you+give+him+zero