I Quit My Big 4 Accounting Job to Fry Chicken and Will Never Go Back

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Henry Lee, a 46-year-old franchise owner in Aurora, Colorado. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Academics were never my strong suit. My GPA was barely 3.0 while I attended a small school in Tennessee on a football scholarship. I majored in finance and economics.

My goal was to get to the NFL, but when I realized that was not happening, I started looking for a job related to my major.

After working as an accountant for multiple companies, including Big Fours, I left my corporate career to open a fried chicken franchise. I’m so much happier now.

Once I got to my first Big Four, I jumped around

My first job was for PRG-Schultz, a debt recovery company specializing in sales tax recovery. I found the position and applied through a job site.

After that, I worked as a sales tax accountant at International Rectifier. My manager told me I should try to get a job at a Big Four. I didn’t have an impressive résumé, but I applied, interviewed, and got hired as a senior tax associate at Deloitte. Working in sales tax is incredibly niche, and I think that helped me get the job.

Working at Deloitte opened up many doors

Everyone majoring in accounting hopes to one day work at a Big Four. Once you have one of these companies on your résumé, it doesn’t matter where you attended college.

I didn’t consider the work difficult — I rarely get stressed out and don’t take things too seriously. You’re expected to bill lots of hours and work overtime. There’s also a lot of office politics.

Over the next 10 years, I hopped around to work at different companies, staying only about a year each time. Back then, people would leave to work at other companies for salary increases, which is how I ended up at Ernst & Young.

I chased the highest possible salary bumps

A former colleague referred me to EY. We got referral bonuses, so everyone tried to refer as many people as possible. After that, another position opened up with Deloitte in San Diego, and I left for another salary bump.

My salary increased by two to three percent annually, so it was more profitable to move to another company and get a 20% to 25% salary increase plus a signing bonus.

I was laid off from my second role at Deloitte in 2008 during the recession. After working at Burger King as a senior tax specialist, I was referred to Accenture in 2011 as a senior consultant by a former colleague.

My experiences at the Big Four companies were similar

My performance reviews were usually good to average. I didn’t consider myself a superstar or a high-performing employee. The working environment was similar in all three of them. Only the people were different.

Deloitte was fun because the people in my department weren’t uptight. EY was more strict overall.

PwC, where I started working in 2014, was my favorite company. I formed a relationship there with a former Microsoft employee who referred me to Microsoft in 2013. Microsoft had the best work-life balance of all the companies.

Eventually, I was tired of the internal politics at these companies and the endless Zoom meetings, which were a waste of time. I thought, ‘I couldn’t just be born to do taxes,’ and the work was not groundbreaking, rewarding, or challenging. I was unproductive and uninterested in the job. They call it quiet quitting nowadays.

I was considering what to do next. Growing up, my family owned a Chinese restaurant. I missed Korean fried chicken in Colorado, which was so good in Los Angeles but terrible here.

I decided to open a Korean fried chicken franchise myself

I decided to franchise with Bonchon because I missed it from living in Los Angeles. I invested my life savings into opening the first location and the initial franchise fee by cashing out my 401(k) of around $100,000.

I underwent three weeks of kitchen training, during which I learned how to fry chicken, cook the dishes, and prep the veggies. Training also included front-of-house training.

While opening the restaurant, I still worked at Microsoft but quit eight months in. As a senior tax manager, the salary I left behind was just under $160,000.

After opening the first location in Denver in 2018, the business took off

I bought all the franchise rights in Colorado and now have six locations. I also own a boba tea shop, and my next venture is opening a 15,000-square-foot food hall with seven restaurants.

The most significant difference is that in corporate, you’re expected to be in the office for 40-50 hours regardless of if you have work or projects to do. When you own a business, you work when needed.

When I first opened Bonchon, I cooked and ran day-to-day operations in the kitchen. I worked around 60-80 hours a week, seven days a week. It was a grind for the first year because of the steep learning curve.

By the time I opened my third location, I was hands-off on the day-to-day operations and relied on my managers. I’m much happier now.

I have a wife and two kids and can spend much more time with them now.

I would never, ever go back to corporate

Working in corporate is like being stuck in the matrix; after you find your way out, it’s like night and day. You can’t go back once you experience the freedom to do whatever you want.

When you leave corporate, you realize you’re capable of so much, but leaving the security, steady paycheck, and benefits was scary. I have an increased net worth, and getting capital to expand or fund others is much easier. I wish I left much earlier in my career.