Ready for IB...pivoting to start-up?

Currently an undergrad student in a pretty good spot to recruit for IB in NYC. Networked hard, know technicals cold, resume is strong. I legitimately enjoy modeling - genuinely fascinated by what makes a company financially strong and breaking it down to the core. I can make some really beautifully formatted (mock) pitch decks for hours on end. Bankers are some of the sharpest, most hard-working, and polished people I've ever met and the idea of working alongside people like that is what drew me here in the first place. It's been a lot of sleepless nights to even get to this point.

Yet, now that I'm at the finish line I find myself being drawn to focus full-time on a startup I've been working on. It started as just a what-if passion project at first. However, it's getting to a point where I'll need to commit to it full-time.

Is it insanely stupid and immature to forgo a prestigious high-paying job to pursue a start-up with no set path, no predictable pay, and a ton of obstacles. Hard to tell if you'll regret not taking a chance on yourself or if you'll regret not going the safe route when you see your peers making big bucks right out of school with all sorts of cool stuff like top MBA prospects, exit ops to PE/HF, eastern european gold-digging model girlfriends, parties at lavo and the hamptons, etc.

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You realize that nothing is really that predictable in finance either right? You could get fired just as easily/not get a big bonus when the market is down. You will be working so much in investment banking that you won't even have time to do any of the stuff that you are talking about. The real reason that anyone works in IB is to save a shitload of money, so they can do all that good shit later in life, because they sure as hell don't have time to do it during the analyst/associate years.

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Work in something with less insane hours like AM or WM, and you can still focus on the startup. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

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