I was just looking back at my original post to start this thread. There's a great lesson there in the value of investing in an exceptional growth company (Apple).
In 2012, I had 65 shares of Apple. I worked retail through college and took Employee Stock as part of my pay. I maxed out the contributions. I ended up making more on the stock gains than I did with my part time wages for the year. I think I put in 5-6k and ended up turning that into 30k. That took about 4 years to get those gains (Apple was just starting to take over everything, I started collecting shares before the iPhone came out). So lesson 1, if you have the option for stock in the company you work for, and you believe in its potential for growth - take the equity and let it work for you.
I ended up selling all my shares in late 2013/early 2014 and pocketing that 30k (25 profit) and starting a business with it. It worked out very well but in hindsight I should have left the stock sit in my account. Those 65 shares would be 455 shares after the 2014 split. That would be about $190,000 today. In 8 years I would have turned 6k into 190k. (That's a 30x+ flip)
So lesson 2, if you have an amazing stock - don't overthink it and let it do its magic. Long term the great companies always shine.
side note: Apple Retail let you put aside I think 5-10% of your paycheck and let it go towards stock. Then they would give you 15% off the lowest price of either the start or end of the quarter. You would literally make gains instantly when they awarded your options. I still have a few friends that either work there or still have their stock and some of these dudes that were making $15/hr for years now have 3-400k in AAPL stock that they got for pennies.
started from the bottom now we here
And it's still going. Well done
i got out a few weeks ago to secure profits. I had like 400k shares 
