A little lost, could use advice...

I'll spare you too many details, but I've been working at a boutique investment advisor with UHNW clients for the last 5 years, and am headed to an M7 MBA (Columbia / Booth) this fall.  I always knew I wanted to get out of the advisory business, but there was enough upward trajectory and comp was very good for the role, and I was able to demonstrate a lot of work impact that I figured would help me get into a good MBA program if/when I decided to pivot out... fortunately that materialized and here I am.  I've always liked finance and wanted to work in a more "pure" investing role, but also would be open to corp dev or some other strategic finance role down the line.  Now that I've made it to a point where some doors may be open that weren't previously there, I'm struggling with what path to go down and am hoping some of you might be able to provide your 2c - though I know it is a subjective choice.

For some additional context, I've been very lucky to work with extremely successful and well-connected clients, and built up a good enough reputation within my firm and with the clients who knew me, so I have a few people willing to make warm connections to high level people at the types of firms I may not normally have access to given my experience (nobody values a PWM skillset, though I do have some modeling experience and was more investment-focused than most PWM roles).  

I'll bucket the options I'm looking at with my thoughts on each.  I guess my question is, in my shoes, what do you think is the best path forward to maximize (a) the quality of my work experience and ideally some level of exit optionality and (b) I actually have a likelihood of being able to land, recognizing that I don't have the traditional background for the role but have warm connections in the space?  I basically have to pick one, since you can't effectively recruit for multiple things, so these options (I think) are pretty mutually exclusive.  I am scared of striking out in recruiting from a lack of focus and ending up in the same spot I was in after undergrad, where I'm kind of forced to select from a small number of mediocre options are available to me.

1. Private Equity

Connections: Partner/founder connections at MM/LMM shops. My boss has a PE background and has said he's willing to go to bat for me with his connections in the space.

Pro: Allows me to go directly into an investing role.  Work seems more stimulating than IB, which would be the more logical route to go for someone without connections.  More positive long-term career outlook IMO than public markets investing (more on this below).

Con: I haven't worked in an M&A capacity so believe this would be a big uphill battle even with the connections I have, so could end up spinning my wheels recruiting for it, only for a high likelihood of failure and then I need to scramble to get another job lined up.  I'm pretty facile with excel and modeling but I'm sure anyone with IB or PE experience is better than me at it.  If I managed to land a role, I'm concerned about whether or not there'd be the amount of support there to get me up to speed.

2. Investment Banking

Connections: I have partner/senior MD-level connections who could get me in the door at a few of the top boutiques (CVP and EVR, in particular).  

Pro: I'm confident I can do this job and would land at a good firm if I recruited for it, given that I'm attending a target MBA program for these firms and have lots of experience in a client-facing role, which IB ultimately is.  The money is good.  And even though people say post-MBA banking doesn't have the same exit optionality, maybe I could go this route and then leverage some of the above PE connections down the line since I'd maybe be more qualified at that point? This probably has the most exit optionality of the 3 options I'm showing here if I had to guess.

Cons: I will be 29 when I graduate and don't necessarily want to kill myself working 80+ hour weeks doing work that isn't particularly stimulating from what I hear.  I think I'd be able to work the hours, but at a certain point I wonder whether or not it's worth it - money isn't everything to me.  The recent talk on WSO and in the news about how IB juniors live has made me very hesitant to enter the industry - I don't want to sacrifice my physical and mental health for a job I likely won't enjoy that much.

3. Investment management (ideally LO AM)

Connections: A few connections at small HFs and large LO shops.

Pro: I think relative to PE, I have a better shot at landing this since I have experience in the public markets and was managing an equity portfolio for clients at my firm.  I have a better grasp of what goes into a pitch here vs. PE as well.  Still relative though, since these jobs are very hard to land and I'm still competing with a good pool of candidates for a small number of roles.  I enjoy the research process and find the work stimulating, and think it'd be a good job if I could land it.  My school places well in this category.

Con: Very competitive to get jobs, still don't have direct experience so will be tough to differentiate myself.  Also the industry is shrinking so I'm not sure about the long term viability of a career in public market equities.  Probably the fewest exit options of the three if I do land a role, but if I were at a LO shop I don't think I'd want to exit unless I was forced out.

Happy to provide additional context if it's helpful.  This is a bit of a rant because I'm kind of grappling with going from having very few job options open to me, to the MBA and connections giving me access to some opportunities that weren't there before, so I'm feeling kind of paralyzed and hoping some of you can outline how they would think about it.