Leaving the System

For someone who grew up below the poverty line, the structure of a large accounting firm felt like the ultimate sanctuary. It’s a world built on rules. There are defined paths, established hierarchies, and clear expectations. If you perform well, the next step is visible. You are safe.

For a long time, I craved that safety, even if I also found it uncomfortable at times (remember, we are complex and full of contradictions). There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing to build your career inside a system. For many, it provides the exact foundation and scale needed to do your best work. But over time, I felt something else quietly growing alongside it — a desire to build something of my own. Not just to participate in a system, but to design one.

Making the decision to resign from a partnership in Big 4 accounting to start Compass CPA didn’t make sense on a spreadsheet. When your primary inherited money story is rooted in scarcity, walking away from a predictable, top-tier income can feel objectively terrifying. You are exchanging the exact security you spent your whole life trying to achieve for complete uncertainty.

What you gain instead is true ownership.

The decision wasn’t rooted in logic. It was rooted in emotion, and the deep desire to create and build and live in alignment with my values. As you get to know me, you will come to understand that I am fiercely driven by my values. Starting my own firm in pursuit of my dreams and values simultaneously forced me to confront the loudest part of my money story… the fear of losing it all. The dream was there but, suddenly, there was no corporate safety net.

On the day I started Compass CPA, it was just me and a blank laptop. I had no systems, no structure, no clients, no income, and really no clue what the future held.

Survival mode reactivated.

But it’s a mode I know intimately. When you have already survived growing up with absolutely nothing, the threat of a failing business doesn’t quite carry the same terror as it might to most. You have already looked the worst-case scenario in the eye long ago, and you know you can survive it. And because of that, this time, the pressure felt completely different.

Money stopped being a paycheque I earned within a structure someone else created. It became a raw material I could shape through discipline, risk, and vision. In the future, we’ll explore creation more, but for now it’s important to understand money can be viewed in this way.

Leaving the system wasn’t just a career decision. It was the moment I realized money didn’t just have to be a shield against poverty. It could be a tool for building something meaningful — for clients, for team, and for community.