As I recall, I had to fight tooth and nail to be 'offered' anything in the way of employment, so I never turned down anything ... except .... when I was about 22 and playing in a pub, an amiable Chinese guy of my age, who would come there with some friends, proposed to me that we open a restaurant/pub together, and I could supply the entertainment, along with half the financial investment. The idea of doing the kinds of thing he was doing - borrowing vast sums of money, making real estate deals, hiring contractors, halting construction, re-starting construction, re-negotiating loans, and laughing about it all - well, he might as well have been asking me to join him in building the first moon colony .....

And then, a couple of years later, there was the retired ship's engineer, an Afghani, who I would drink with, and who hinted broadly, that if I were really that interested in gun-running and sinking ships (in insurance scams) introductions could be made. I didn't pursue that one either.

Oh, all the "what-ifs" ... !