I joined a startup in the late 80's. By the top of the bubble in the spring of 2000, I had pre-tax equity on the order of ~$10 million. Pretty good for a grunt

I joined a startup in the late 80's. By the top of the bubble in the spring of 2000, I had pre-tax equity on the order of ~$10 million. Pretty good for a grunt in a cubicle. I was not a manager or any kind of super-star engineer. Within a year, I was laid off and the stock had tanked 95%. I had broken all the rules of investing and rolled up a nice pile, but eventually got burned big time. I would estimate my gross proceeds from stock sales at a little less than $1 million over about 10 years. Shoulda, woulda, coulda...