> Don’t take it so personally. I did once too.

This is easier said than done.

The founders of many startups are extremely charismatic. They can get you to sacrifice your personal / family life and work long hours by dangling the big pay day in front of you.

The second startup I worked at let the first 8 employees buy into the company for Class A shares. These in theory were worth more than the Class B shares I was given. This later led to some marital issues when one guy invested $100K into the startup based on the founder taking everyone out to dinner and assuring the wives it was a great idea. Then 3 years later they have turned down 2 possible sales, no exit plan in site, and that $100K would have been useful for the children's tuition who are about to go to college.

I write these posts are warnings to people who get excited about the appeal of working for a startup.

So I would really love to hear the author talk about what his employees thought about turning down the deal and how much money they would have got.