I Made Three CEOs Rich -- So Why Am I Broke?

Dear Liz,

I went to Silicon Valley after graduate school to dive into the high-tech startup world, and I did. I got my first job working in the marketing department for a wireless device company, ten years ago. I got paid the market rate which was very good, but as you know, Northern California is an expensive place to live.

My first company got sold. I had stock options but they ended up being worthless after the deal. However, I had gained enough experience to get another marketing job quickly. That time, the CEO told us, "We have an exit strategy. We will get bought by a public company and your stock options will be converted into stock in the company that buys us, or else we will go public and then your stock options will have liquidity."

That was false. We ended up merging with another company and then the combined firm was bought by a privately-owned tech company and once again I had nothing to show for my hard work.

When I got laid off the second time, I had a huge monthly expense profile and I had to get a new job quickly. Several vcs knew me by then so I had a couple of opportunities, and I took a job with a well-known serial entrepreneur who has been on many magazine covers.

I guess you can predict where my story is going. Once again, just a few months ago, I got laid off with three months of severance. That's better than nothing, but my marketing programs and advice helped my ex-boss, the CEO, to make hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now I sit in northern California with a $6,500/month mortgage and no job, and I'm disgusted. What am I doing wrong? How could I make three CEOs filthy rich and make nothing more than my weekly salary for myself?

Thanks Liz -- reading your columns is a high point in my day!

Yours,

Geoff

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Dear Geoff,

A lot of people are nodding their heads in agreement with you right now. Many people (and not just people in Silicon Valley) have been through experiences that are very similar to yours.

Sometimes an entrepreneur starts a company, sells the company, lays off all the employees and then starts a new company -- and even tries to hire the same employees back!

The sad thing is that sometimes those employees, the people who've been jacked around once already, go back to work for the same skeevy entrepeneur who lied to them the first time.

In this way, talented and marketable people let themselves be screwed over and mistreated, maybe out of misplaced loyalty or because they think they won't be able to get a job if they don't work for a leader who has already proven him- or herself to be untrustworthy.

Most of us were brought up to be  loyal and hard-working, not to be brave and to listen to our own hearts. In school we got rewarded for being obedient and doing what the teacher told us to do.

We didn't get rewarded or acknowledged for speaking our minds. Now you are learning that until you take charge of your own career, you are just grist for somebody else's mill.

The next time you take a job, if you take a job again instead of consulting to startups, you will have an employment contract that spells out exactly what happens if your company is sold and that protects you from the three unfortunate things that have already happened to you.

If stock options are part of your comp plan, you'll make sure that your contract specifies that if your stock options become worthless in a deal, you're compensated in another way. You know all about making deals, because you are a marketing person. Now it's time for you to find your voice and make the right deal for yourself.

It feels great to have vcs calling you and saying, "We have an opportunity for you!" It's a wonderful feeling to be wanted and needed. You have to take the next step and tell the vc on the phone, "Here's what I need to consider taking this job." You have to protect yourself. Your three former CEOs certainly did!

Maybe these three harsh blows were Mother Nature's way of telling you that it's time to start your own business. What did those three CEOs have, after all, that you don't have? Maybe all they had was a little more chutzpah than you have right now. With luck, your anger and frustration over your current situation will inspire you to find your inner chutzpah the next time.

We can feel angry and hurt for a little while when somebody mistreats us, but before long we have to get up and dust ourselves off and say, "I made it possible for that guy to mistreat me -- I made it easy." That's the learning for you. You are not a victim of circumstance or the victim of a less-than-ethical CEO.

You put yourself in the position to get jerked around three times in a row, and now you must commit to never let that happen again. Business people make deals that are advantageous for them. That's the assumption on which the business world rests!

All the best,

Liz