28-Year-Old Self-Funded Searcher Seeking General Advice

In the next 3–6 months, I plan to quit my full-time job to begin a self-funded search. While I have 18 months of living expenses, plus enough remaining to fund the required equity injection for a $2–3M EV deal under the typical 80/10/10 SBA structure, I am still somewhat nervous about the decision, given the income I'll be giving up and how trendy this space has become over the last 12 months. For some context on my background, I have spent the last 5 years in lower-middle market investment banking and private equity. In recent years, I have observed a few things that have led me to conclude that business ownership is the only long-term viable path for me: 1) Financially, at least in LMM PE, the opportunity is nowhere near as lucrative as it once was due to how crowded the market for institutional-grade assets has become, and the effect this has had on valuations and, by extension, carry. 2) The traditional private equity fund lifecycle often incentivizes short-term, suboptimal decision-making. 3) The people who do exceptionally well in this path often make it their entire life. I respect that, but I do not want the tradeoff to be my relationships or my health. In no way do I think small business ownership will be a walk in the park, but I do believe that over time, if I am successful, I can achieve a level of autonomy that will never be available to me on my current trajectory. 4) At the end of the day, I just can’t see myself exerting the level of energy I know I need to be successful if it’s in service of someone else’s goals and ambitions. I recognize that some of this is specific to my own experience, but I am nonetheless disinterested in continuing to pursue traditional private equity. I have spent the last ten years working to get to where I am now, but I am dissatisfied enough that I do not have much fear of walking through the one-way door of quitting. That said, I do not want to make a rash decision. For some additional context, I grew up in a rural, blue-collar community, and to be honest, I feel more comfortable in my ability to relate to that archetype than I do to the white-collar professionals I currently find myself working with. I also do not view any task as beneath me. If owning a business means cleaning toilets, taking calls on nights and weekends, or doing whatever needs to get done, I am fine with that. I simply want to find an opportunity that gives me the chance to succeed or fail based on the quality of my decisions. In today’s environment, is what I’m planning to do totally preposterous? Given my background and lack of direct operating experience, are there specific target characteristics I should prioritize to mitigate these risks? Are there alternative, ETA-adjacent paths I should be considering given where I am in my life? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.