Say Tim Cook cashes out $50 million in Apple stock today. Say in a year that same stock was only worth $40 million. Would you then say that he walked away wit

Say Tim Cook cashes out $50 million in Apple stock today. Say in a year that same stock was only worth $40 million. Would you then say that he walked away with $10 million more than the actual value he created? The point here is that at the time the founder cashed out his $2 million in equity, it had a value of $2 million. Not zero, not nothing. And the financiers obviously agreed, and took that equity in return. You can't judge the deal by the direction the value took later.