If we sit down to negotiate and you push $20 across the table and I get up and walk away, I've lost nothing
You find $20 in your pocket. You burn it with a lighter, proclaiming at the top of your lungs that you have lost nothing according to your high school AP psych class, because you had nothing before you opened the pocket. Everybody looking at you thinks you're insane for burning the $20. Then you start yelling that you would rather find $50 and that everybody else keeping the $20 in their pockets is risk averse and should buy lottery tickets instead of keeping the money because they might win $50 with it instead.
edit: I mean, that's how I see this scenario. Kid got super lucky that they offered him anything, and didn't just steal the idea from him and go for it. Now that he's getting greedy, there won't be nearly as much PR backlash if they do just take the idea and run, leaving him with nothing.
Also, pet peeve of mine: risk-averse, not risk-adverse.
Thank you for the correction.
And thank you for vividly demonstrating the mental gymnastics that I mentioned. Turning down an offer to buy one's product is clearly not the same as lighting cash on fire. It may make someone
feel the same, which is why they would not risk it, but the acts are clearly unequal. Someone may
feel that retaining control of their own company and not selling for 30million is the same as putting a loaded gun to their head and pulling the trigger, but the acts are clearly unequal. This was my observation; many on this thread dislike taking risks, especially in regards to their money, because of how it makes them
feel. Nothing wrong with that. Just like there is nothing wrong with a risk-taker choosing a different path. Resorting to emotional hyperbole to make a point does not advance the argument that one has a risk-taking personality either.