In context, I’d assume OP’s options were employer-granted options being far more likely than they were speculating on public market options.
EDIT: From the down voters I would appreciate some substantiated reply as to why this isn't true. Don't get me wrong, if I had taken such a deal and was now under I'd be miserable as well, especially if I counted on that money and maybe bought something on credit expecting a windfall later. Such as getting a huge mortgage I thought I'd be able to pay off very fast soon. I took the opposite deal. I rejected offers that wanted to give me a lot of variable renumeration and a small base salary and was laughed out of the room.
If that sentiment has somehow reversed… well, you picked a bad time to do so!
If you work for a startup and reject variable comp, you are wasting your time. Go get a safer, easier, better-salaried position.
If you aren’t working for a startup, you’re in no position to comment on the validity of the approach people take there working with variable comp.
You just walked into a funeral for people who got hit by a train and said “what’s the big deal? I never cross train tracks, they’re too risky.”
If you work for a startup, like you say, there's usually no option to get more base comp. Absolutely understood. You do that when you are young and take a chance to hit it big. Don't complain if you don't hit it big though.
I never said I applied at a startup though and the example I made is more indicative of Amazon or Google.
The way I see the parents example the appropriate analogy would be a funeral for people that liked standing on the train tracks knowing a train was coming and trying to jump before it hit them and I wonder why everyone is surprised that it happened.
And even if the funeral is as you describe, my point is that people don’t usually want to be told at a funeral why the deceased was wrong. It’s for emotional support. Like this post.
And again fair enough that in this situation it is very easy to not apply this to the original poster's question and situation (which analogy wise would be shouting at the entire group of people gathered at the funeral that it's this guy's fault for crossing the tracks vs. having a side conversation w/ someone who posited that maybe the guy was one of the ones that actually stands on tracks for thrill when he knows the train's about to be there ;))