Tried to leave a FAANG, was offered huge handcuffs in the form of more RSUs. Left anyway a few months later for a startup at 0.5% equity. Left that startup in 9 months to go _back_ to said FAANG, leaving my startup options unvested.

Returning to FAANG left me with less than half the RSUs I originally had (since then worth about $2m), and that 0.5% options in the startup? Said startup was bought right after I left and my options would _also_ have been worth about $2m.

So I was ultimately right back where I started, having narrowly avoided lots of money two separate times.