Leaving great PE gig 1-year in due to hating the job

Hi,

Looking for some advice (or encouragement I guess) on my situation. I joined a LMM PE shop less than a year ago, with prior experience of 3 years in IB and a short stint at a small business in a financial role. I have now, due to decent work and a great deal of luck the possibility to head a new sector specific team at the shop. I am already before the official promotion bringing in a few deals we are looking at, and will get a few of our more junior resources (even more junior than me) to work with. So all in all a great position to be in.
However, I have come to the conclusion that a transaction based career is not for me. I have completely lost interest in doing and participating in transactions and can not imagine myself working in this position even a year. I feel exhausted just thinking about a deal, find myself procrastinating most of the day, get anxiety when new work lands on my desk, and just in general have grown to despise the day-to-day within PE. This has lead to some serious anxiety and almost panic-attack states at times when the stress has been at it's highest.

I have always wanted to build a business of my own and now have a chance to join a small business through some connections and by a stake in it. The business is however very small (just above 5 million dollars in revenue) and my income would decrease drastically. Yet I find myself thinking about this all day everyday.

With limited years of finance experience, I would shoot my potential finance career in the knee by doing this, but at this point I don't feel I would ever want to go back.

So, should I stick with this opportunity and wait for the official promotion, or go with the risky long-term dream?