You’re working hard, things are going well, piece by piece you’ve built a life you are proud of, you’ve overcome obstacles and challenges, beat the odds and then you find yourself at the center of an unexpected dilemma – do you risk it all to keep growing? What if growing means leaving the job you worked so hard to get or the industry you worked so hard to break into? How we approach risk often has a huge bearing on our journey and so we’ve asked some of the brightest folks we know to share stories of risks they’ve taken.

Maxine Willocks

Taking a significant leap, I shifted from the familiar restaurant industry to the unpredictable realm of online entrepreneurship. This bold move was a leap of faith, fueled by my conviction in the transformative power of Kundalini yoga and the urgency to share its benefits with a wider audience. Simultaneously, I pursued a business degree in college while training to become a Kundalini yoga teach. Read more>>

DeMarcus Bumpers

DeMarcus Bumpers a Houston Texas Native with aspirations of becoming the first African American Male Houstonian Emmy Award, Golden Globe, and Academy Award Winning Actor. Right now in current day he is on the path to making his dream come true by already lighting television screens with back to back film releases that are a success on the streaming platform such as Apple TV, Tubi, Amazon Prime, and more. Read more>>

Ryan Biller

In the Middle East, everything is not what it seems. I had a gnawing feeling this arid, turbulent, and vibrant region of the world was a place I did not understand well. Conversations from Middle America regarding the topic felt skewed; oftentimes a mix of cultural or political caricatures; depicting it as a place of mustachioed, fez-wearing, sword-brandishing men or inhumane regimes which harshly rule over uncivilized peoples. Read more>>

Morris Metz IV

Three years ago I had just gotten out of a relationship, I had a job that was barely filling my gas tank, and my therapist had transferred to another location several hours away. I was failing courses for my degree (BS in Kinesiology) after I had shifted from a Computer Science program (Complete tonal shift). Read more>>

Sam Reid

The last few years I co-produced, shot and edited an 8 part documentary series with all the small budget we have going towards the production itself. Essentially working for many years on this series for free and balancing finishing it between paid work. Read more>>

Dr. Ellie Vale-Saquieres

As the CEO of The Beauty Bar, 2023 has been an intense year of firsts! We’ve had our minds set on growing our name and services and have invested in a plethora of new services. This past November, we decided to take a risk by applying to work at the Orlando International Fashion Week as a makeup artist and were thrilled when we were accepted! Read more>>

Adriana Wroth

As a business owner One of the biggest lessons in life that I can share is how taking risk can positively impact and change our lives. One day after being frustrated and come home crying because of job I how did the time I was not feeling appreciated my daughter came to me hug me and say mom why don’t you start your own business would you like to work for somebody else’s dream, or would you like to work for your dream? This was a defining moment where I realize working for my dream would be much more rewarding. Read more>>

Tyler Gagnon

I’ve taken risks my entire life, it’s sort of become my M.O. as i’ve grown older and I think it’s safe to say that almost every decision/event thats gotten me to where I’m at right now started from taking a risk. One story that I think relates the most is how I got my first multi-million streamed song. Now, this is after my break with Lil Skies as an engineer so this was a big deal. Read more>>

Kelly

I would say the biggest risk so far has been starting this business. My background in management and leading a team definitely played a part in wanting my own small business one day. I was 7 years in at a company when I realized I needed a change and soon. Read more>>

Nikolai Puc’

My journey in concert photography has been a exciting adventure right from the start. It all began during my high school days when my love for live music clashed with the reality of how costly attending concerts are—quite expensive, to say the least! Read more>>

Zach Gunty

It was late April of 2023 and my wife (Andi) and I had just finished spending the past week in the PNW (Pacific NorthWest). We traversed Olympic National Park, the HoH Rainforest, the Puget Sound and many of the gorgeous and nearly untouched beaches of the coast just outside of the rainforest. Read more>>

Georgia Edgeworth

I moved to Nashville to follow the dream of country music. For years and years I tried to get a song cut, I tried to get a record deal, I tried to get a publisher to sign me and I just kept falling short. I even busted my vocal cords trying to impress a publisher at a show and he still didn’t sign me. I couldn’t sing for a year after that and had to have vocal cord surgery. Read more>>

CINDY WRIGHT

While working in and for “non-profit organizations” at the beginning of my working career, I went on to work for “for-profit organizations” afterwards. An experience I wouldn’t change for anything. Raising money to help the less fortunate to raising money for businesses that sold products and services to consumers. Read more>>

Sean Creel

I am a risk taker. I LOVE taking risks. When you’re willing to take chances, amazing life experiences can come with it. But I’m also a family man, so I need to make sure I’m not being foolish with those risks. As Richard Branson puts it, you have to “protect the downside”. Read more>>

Hope Grier

My husband owned and operated a landscaping company and we had been looking for a property to buy in town for his employees to be able to meet and somewhere to store his equipment, etc. My husband found this property and it was in rough shape. It had two buildings on it. One we could use for the landscaping business and one that we had no clue what we would do with. Read more>>

Jameece William

I took a risk starting a tequila brand. Most people start boutiques, hair, lashes, nails, and etc. I always wanted to be different and bring something different to not only my hometown, but to other places as well. In 2021 while I was out on vacation. Read more>>

Colin Szumski

Hello my name is Colin Szumski and I am from Medina, Ohio which is about 30min south of Cleveland. I had started painting shoes during my college years and covid. I had been doing custom shoes for about 2 years until i had my first big life decision. Read more>>

Michelle Laging

I suppose the biggest risk that I have taken was to start my own practice. I have a unique skill set as a physical therapist that works in the field of eating disorders – there aren’t many of us out here! I used to work in an inpatient setting and I had the opportunity to build a mobility program for patients admitted to the unit for eating disorder treatment. Read more>>

Nancy Becher

For over 35 years I was chugging along as a business consultant when WHAM, I was hit by a car. Literally, and it changed my life totally. For a year and half I sat in bed only getting out to go to doctors and hospitals. One morning I woke up and it was like God hit me on the back of the head and told me to get up, get going and to change the lives of millions of women with chronic and autoimmune invisible disabilities. Read more>>

Amanda Mecsey

Certainly! Our journey with OCP began after a challenging experience with a previous business partner. Faced with adversity, we made the bold decision to part ways and embark on our own path. The circumstances were far from ideal, but we were determined to create something better. Read more>>

Martine Beerman

I had been working full time as an on-air Host/Producer/ Content Creator, and Writer for WhatsTrending.com. As our project drew to a close, I had one of two options; Either I go in search of another job, working for a new company, or I take a risk, and commit to becoming a full time Content Creator myself. Read more>>

Mack Damon

My typical recording artist client is usually referred by other industry personnel (I.E. managers, promoters, record labels). The favorable word of mouth is that together with my team, I push artists outside of their comfort zone to reach for extraordinary results. We take the great ideas that are brought in and expand the possibilities available to the people we work with. Read more>>

Tamatha McCoy

I have taken many risks in my life both big and small from moving from my home State of Connecticut to Georgia where I knew no one, or anything about Georgia at all. However, the biggest risk I’ve taken thus far was sharing and telling my story/testimony in a public forum, such as this. Read more>>

Sarah Alsaud

Venturing into business without prior expertise in crucial areas like marketing, sales, and supply chain management was a risky gamble, the hands-on learning experience proved invaluable, though it may have come at a significant financial cost. A substantial financial hit at this early stage can severely hamper the business’s growth and stability, potentially leading to its premature closure and lost of investment. Read more>>

Viola Esdaille

I have always dreamed of owning my very own shoe store. I would daydream about what it would look like, smell like and most of all what brand of shoes would I carry. I even had aspirations of designing my own shoes one day. But the cost of a start up like this would cost more than I had in my savings at the time. Read more>>

Aaron and Miriam Orr

Entrepreneurialship is a risk in itself. No risk, no reward, they say! The illusion of risk has handicapped us from our dreams for centuries. How many of us have put a goal, a dream on the back burner only to mitigating risk? Risk by definition is “to do something that may result in something bad or unpleasant happening”. Read more>>

Norris Duckett III

Everything we choose to do in life has some kind of risk involved. For myself the path I’ve chosen I honestly ran from for years because I knew what it would take to accomplish and what it would take away from me. After coming to terms with my mission I was built up and broken down and transformed me into a better human. Read more>>

Dalia Ramahi

I am a professional voice actor and one of the biggest risks I took was leaving my cushy well paying corporate career to go into voice acting full time. This was back before I knew how to run a voice over business. I was so burnt out in the finance sector and had saved up a good bit over my 15 year career at that point that I just wanted out. Read more>>

N.A.M

Although not a favored part of your journey, a ceratin “test” must always be at least considered before venturing out into the world of opportunities. You can be whoever you want to be, yet a story is only told by the few. Hence the word “risk”. The weak starve and the strong bear the fruit. You’ve got what it takes, but are you willing to give up everything to achieve your dreams? Remember, birds flock together; the Eagles fly free. Read more>>

Lena Anderson

In September of 2020, I sold all of my belongings (even my car) and moved from Philadelphia, PA. to Playa del Carmen, Mexico sight unseen. While on the surface, this seemed like a big risk to outsiders, it was the realizaton of a life-long dream to move abroad, the culmination of abruptly quitting my corporate Human Resources role two years prior, and the catalyst for me to start my travel business. Read more>>

Marcus Dawson

I would say starting a career in art has been a risk I have taken. I did not have any experience in the Art industry a year ago but because I took a risk I have had so many wonderful opportunities come my way. Read more>>