Not sure if that's sarcasm or not and I know that usually appears only in the news about CEO's who get millions that way anyway, but the CEO's of (usually smaller) companies that have the same compensation plan often just get nothing ($1) when they didn't perform because there simply was no profit (so no dividends) and no-one would buy (parts of) shares because they are down (if the company is publicly trading that is quite a bit more complex). So that seems a far more fair way of compensating and paying out millions for the risk.