> You took a gamble on a lower salary with the expectation that it would be compensated by your company stock going up in value. I did not. I joined a startup

> You took a gamble on a lower salary with the expectation that it would be compensated by your company stock going up in value. I did not. I joined a startup as a young graduate without thinking about what stocks meant at all. > Which is your decision, but don't cry later My decision was "let's join an exciting startup, probably those stocks won't ever have any value". I don't even care about the fact that I did not get more than I did: I never counted or even hoped for it. But what wasn't clear to me back then was that I was being abused by the founders.