When I was still in the early stages of my first start-up, in autumn 2006, and working full-time at my consulting job, I was also interviewing with various banks. Through this excellent recruitment agent, I got a series of interviews at Lehman Brothers which ultimately culminated in them basically creating a job for me in their Front Office product management team and offering it to me.
This was a very good banking job. Front-office based, plenty of exposure to all parts of the bank, creative, intense, and well paid. I hesitated, because on the one hand I had committed into the business I was starting (to the tune of several thousand pounds, and, more importantly, to a close friend...), and on the other hand this was an excellent career opportunity from the "corporate career" point of view.
I remember discussing this with my girlfriend at the time. Being very pragmatic, she resolved the question: "Most people," she said, "hope their whole life that they'll be able to start a business. You have the opportunity to do it now, to realise something that for most people remains just a dream. You may never get that opportunity again... but the Lehman job will still be there in a year or two if you decide that start-ups are not for you."
Well, she was wrong about the Lehman job. I'm going to have to accept that I will never get a job there now.