9-When Clients Can’t Pay and Dreams Don’t Wait

After leaving EY, I spent five more years working at a small accounting firm.

Our clients weren’t listed companies or global conglomerates.

They were local shops and small family-run businesses—most of them struggling just to stay afloat.

Some couldn’t pay their taxes.

Some couldn’t even pay their staff.

Eventually, many stopped paying us—their accountants.

These were not rare cases.

They were the norm.

Despite the long hours and mounting stress, the firm’s only strategy was to chase more clients, more volume—quantity over quality. There was no vision. No care. Just survival.

At the accounting office, I saw what adulthood looked like up close—and it scared me.

One colleague said he only made it home in time to see his child’s sleeping face.

A manager used to mutter that he hadn’t had a real conversation with his wife in over a week.

No one seemed happy. No one had time.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t see a single future I wanted to grow into.

Meanwhile, in the evenings and on weekends, I was guiding travelers through Tokyo’s food scene as a side hustle.

My day job drained me.

But my side gig filled me.

While my weekday clients looked exhausted, the people I met on tours were radiant—honeymooners, food lovers, people celebrating anniversaries or proposals. They were alive. Happy.

And I?

I was burnt out, underpaid, and utterly invisible in the fluorescent glare of office life.