The best founders think about their equity points not as tangible, dollar-denominated things they "own", but as intangible, nearly fictitious points of stored energy they can creatively use to increase the probability of a binary outcome (either this will be a company that fully realizes its vision, or it won't).

An intensely vision-oriented founder sees their shares as a resource to allocate in ways that bring them closer to their vision, or as a resource to retain to ensure the company remains on track. This is like playing a video game where the only thing that matters is getting to the next level.