Comment by rpedela

If Peter's company hadn't worked out then your decision would have been correct in hindsight. It is very hard to tell with foresight which startups will succeed or fail. Given the statistics, at the time your decision would have been the most probable one to produce more personal wealth. Even if you had chosen differently, you may not have made the $200 million anyway. If you were given stock options, decided to quit before a liquidation event, then the rational choice would be to not exercise the options because you can get hammered on taxes.

I think your choice was perfectly reasonable and was not a mistake at all.