Robert Cezar Matei has missed a few golden opportunities. First he turned down an opportunity to work for Facebook and decided to stay at Stanford instead. Then he failed to be impressed by Jack Dorsey's Square and turned down an early opportunity there.  But his most costly decision may have been turning down Instagram. He was offered a job as Instagram's 2nd engineer and the founders had only made one other offer prior.
When I was deciding where to work next, they made me build a follow recommendation algorithm using their API. I guess they liked it," he writes. "We talked about their vision. We had sake in the Tenderloin at 1 in the morning. Kevin crafted a lovely letter, peppered with shared experiences and pictures, as he did for every offer. I was touched.;
    Instead, Matei went to Quora. He was more passionate about its vision and the position. “If you're in the Valley for any amount of time, you'll have missed opportunities,  writes Matei. Whatever. Opportunities were rarely as close as they might seem in hindsight. There are a million ways my life could have turned out worse, too."