This sounds similar to my own story in the blockchain sector.
I joined a major crypto project which was under-delivering on their promises to investors. In my own time, I built a prototype which would have allowed them to meet their promises and would have appeased regulators whom I presumed were breathing down their necks.
Win-win right? Perfect plan! What a genius move it was to use my skills in the most optimal way possible to wedge myself between this very cash-rich company and a large group of dissatisfied investors... with the backing of regulators of one of the wealthiest, most trusted nations on earth to add even more pressure! Surely, the company would be overjoyed, adopt my project, offer me a salary increase and a bonus package...
WRONG. They tried to cancel the project. I had to quit my job in order to pursue the project outside of the company... Then they spent years gaslighting their own employees and community to keep everyone away from my project to ruin my prospects... The tech worked perfectly; that was several years ago and it's still running. Never encountered any bug or hack which is very unusual for this kind of tech. That company I used to work for essentially ended up abandoning their own project (after spending many years wasting millions of dollars on like 30 engineers). With 15x the engineering capacity, they couldn't deliver in 3 years what I and a friend built in 1 year.
Now I'm demoralized from the entire tech industry and basically gave up on my career (until there is a complete political system change?). If this epic plan which was executed almost perfectly didn't work and there is no legal recourse for me due to institutional corruption, then what chance do I have in the future in such system? I will never get such opportunity again... And even if I do and it's executed perfectly, it's not going to work out in my favor because bad actors can essentially get away with everything.
I joined a major crypto project which was under-delivering on their promises to investors. In my own time, I built a prototype which would have allowed them to meet their promises and would have appeased regulators whom I presumed were breathing down their necks.
Win-win right? Perfect plan! What a genius move it was to use my skills in the most optimal way possible to wedge myself between this very cash-rich company and a large group of dissatisfied investors... with the backing of regulators of one of the wealthiest, most trusted nations on earth to add even more pressure! Surely, the company would be overjoyed, adopt my project, offer me a salary increase and a bonus package...
WRONG. They tried to cancel the project. I had to quit my job in order to pursue the project outside of the company... Then they spent years gaslighting their own employees and community to keep everyone away from my project to ruin my prospects... The tech worked perfectly; that was several years ago and it's still running. Never encountered any bug or hack which is very unusual for this kind of tech. That company I used to work for essentially ended up abandoning their own project (after spending many years wasting millions of dollars on like 30 engineers). With 15x the engineering capacity, they couldn't deliver in 3 years what I and a friend built in 1 year.
Now I'm demoralized from the entire tech industry and basically gave up on my career (until there is a complete political system change?). If this epic plan which was executed almost perfectly didn't work and there is no legal recourse for me due to institutional corruption, then what chance do I have in the future in such system? I will never get such opportunity again... And even if I do and it's executed perfectly, it's not going to work out in my favor because bad actors can essentially get away with everything.