In 2019, Juan Hernandez was laid off from SpaceX. Luckily, he still had the opportunity to buy $50K - $60K of the company’s stock and, years later, it’s safe to say the risk was worth it. Today on the show, how stock options built California as a tech hub. Fact-checking by Emma Ferrara.  Your Next Listen  — <a href="https://lnk.to/qalv4mWE"target="_blank" >Do traders who make big bets make big money? </a> Connect with The Indicator — Sign up for <a href="https://npr.org/indicatornewsletter"target="_blank" >The Indicator’s brand new newsletter</a>  — Buy the <a href="https://lnk.to/i3AukBdDWE"target="_blank" >Planet Money book</a>  — Find our <a href="https://linktr.ee/indicator_npr"target="_blank" >socials, YouTube and more</a>! — For sponsor-free episodes, <a href="https://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" >subscribe to NPR+</a>  See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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