How is taking a pay cut not taking a risk? He put capital (his time, not fully compensated) at risk. then most people going to work every day should get stock

How is taking a pay cut not taking a risk? He put capital (his time, not fully compensated) at risk. then most people going to work every day should get stock. Personally, I'd rather have it in salary. 0.05% of a 40-person company isn't going to motivate me worth shit. It has the opposite effect (uncanny valley). I'd much rather work for a hedge fund and be reasonably paid for my skills. Unless it's substantial, equity is a bad sign for me. Why? Because 0.05% of a 40-person company ("checkbox equity") won't motivate me in the least, but it will motivate other people, which means I'm going to be competing (on hours, indignity, and suffering) against people who haven't done the math on their pathetic shares and are delusional and clueless. That's like wrestling a guy on PCP; it's better not to.