Sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience. I bet everyone would get shaken up after getting an opportunity like that taken away, AFTER it was already confirmed that you're getting it.
One thing I'd like to touch upon is you saying that it cost you 5-7 years of your career. Is that really the case, though? Hear me out. I've been employed in a couple of workplaces where I've had similar experiences: employer dangling a shiny thing in front of me in the shape of a promise. "You're nearly there, it'll come soon enough. You just have to work hard." As you can imagine, the shiny thing never reached the palm of my hand. The first time it happened, I worked insanely hard with my rose-tinted glasses on. Took me a while to realise that I'm wasting my time. Once I made the decision to leave in search for better things, I was well equipped to jump higher than before. I already had the skill set AND the internal bullshit detector was calibrated. The second time it happened, I didn't waste any time. Jumped ship, got employed at, what I consider, a dream job.
The point I'm getting at is that you never truly waste time unless you're coasting. The experiences you've had add up to the person (professionally and personally) you are now. It might've taken you longer to achieve what you've set out to do but you got there in the end. You must be happier that you're the CTO at the company you're in now rather than the one you mentioned anyway, right?
> One thing I'd like to touch upon is you saying that it cost you 5-7 years of your career. Is that really the case, though?
My decision not to sue certainly was. Note: my decision. I'm taking responsibility, not blaming the company. I'm not going to get into more detail simply because I've gone over it quite enough for this decade in my previous post.
One thing I'd like to touch upon is you saying that it cost you 5-7 years of your career. Is that really the case, though? Hear me out. I've been employed in a couple of workplaces where I've had similar experiences: employer dangling a shiny thing in front of me in the shape of a promise. "You're nearly there, it'll come soon enough. You just have to work hard." As you can imagine, the shiny thing never reached the palm of my hand. The first time it happened, I worked insanely hard with my rose-tinted glasses on. Took me a while to realise that I'm wasting my time. Once I made the decision to leave in search for better things, I was well equipped to jump higher than before. I already had the skill set AND the internal bullshit detector was calibrated. The second time it happened, I didn't waste any time. Jumped ship, got employed at, what I consider, a dream job.
The point I'm getting at is that you never truly waste time unless you're coasting. The experiences you've had add up to the person (professionally and personally) you are now. It might've taken you longer to achieve what you've set out to do but you got there in the end. You must be happier that you're the CTO at the company you're in now rather than the one you mentioned anyway, right?
The ol' cliché "the journey is the best part."