This man quit his $250,000 Meta job to start over. Three years later, he works just 20 hours a week and lives a stress-free life. What he chose to do next changed his life

For millions of technology workers, landing a job at a company such as Meta can represent the ultimate career milestone: a lucrative salary, valuable stock awards, the opportunity to build products used by millions and the prestige of working for a global technology giant. Walking away voluntarily, particularly when millions of dollars could potentially be left on the table, might therefore seem difficult to understand. For Jason Shen, however, the question eventually became less about how much he could earn and more about how he wanted to spend his time.

Why did an entrepreneur leave Meta?

The 40-year-old entrepreneur left Meta in June 2023 after nearly three years at the company. He subsequently turned executive coaching into his full-time career through Refactor Labs. According to an as-told-to account published by Business Insider, Shen says the business generated $369,000 in revenue over the past 12 months while requiring roughly 20 hours of work a week.

How did Shen ended up at Meta?

Shen's journey to Meta was hardly conventional. He previously spent two years as a product manager at Etsy before being laid off. He later co-founded Headlight, a technology hiring platform, in 2017. The startup pivoted in 2019, becoming a voice-AI company called Midgame. Facebook, now Meta, acquired Midgame in July 2020. Shen stayed and became a product leader. He told Business Insider that the experience strengthened his ability to manage teams, navigate high-level product reviews and build social products reaching millions of users.

The money was great, but something was missing

Shen said his working life increasingly became filled with meetings, document reviews, reorganisations and numerous information feeds. Financially, leaving was no small decision. His target annual cash compensation, including salary and bonus, was about $250,000, he told Business Insider. He was also vesting 230 Meta restricted stock units every quarter. Shen calculated that another three years at the same rate would have given him an additional 2,760 shares. Based on the Meta share price used in the original account, those shares would have been worth approximately $1.68 million before taxes. Yet he could not imagine continuing along the same path for another two decades.

When Shen realised his favourite work wasn't his main job

An important clue came from examining what Shen actually enjoyed doing. At Meta, he spent time mentoring colleagues, facilitating workshops and building a professional community involving hundreds of people. But he said those activities represented only a small portion of how his performance was evaluated. Coaching, meanwhile, felt natural. His mother had worked as a gymnastics coach, while his father was an educator and community leader.

Shen began coaching startup founders while still employed at Meta. After leaving the company and taking a sabbatical, he began seriously building Refactor Labs in January 2024. He also prepared financially for failure. Shen said he set aside about $150,000, largely by selling investments, that he was prepared to sacrifice while trying to establish the business.

From corporate meetings to a 20-hour workweek

The gamble appears to have given Shen something his Big Tech career could not: greater control over his time. He says he now works approximately 20 hours per week, primarily coaching executives and helping startup founders navigate co-founder conflicts. His $369,000 in annual revenue is not equivalent to personal income, as the business has expenses including marketing, software, health insurance, coworking space and payment-processing fees. Still, the reduced schedule has changed his daily life.

Shen can devote time to fitness and writing his book, Deep Ambition. More importantly, he has structured his evenings around his young daughter, taking her to the playground or on stroller runs before the family's dinner and bedtime routine.

Shen gave up millions at a price

Shen admits that having several million additional dollars would be appealing. But staying long enough to collect that money would also have meant giving Meta several more years of his life. His story does not suggest that leaving a well-paid corporate job is the right decision for everyone. Shen had savings, professional experience, a network and a fallback plan advantages that made taking such a risk more manageable.

But his career change highlights a question that can become increasingly important once financial security has been achieved: Is earning more still worth it if the life required to earn it is no longer the life you want? Shen has not abandoned ambition. His goal is to eventually exceed the total compensation he once earned in Big Tech through his own business. The difference is that this time, he wants to pursue that success without surrendering control over the rest of his life.