Tony Robbins says the #1 human need is certainty, but do you know what the second need is? It’s uncertainty. This tug of war between the competing needs of safety and risk are at the heart of so many dilemmas we face in life and for most folks the goal isn’t to eliminate risk – rather it’s to understand this core human need. In our view, the best way to understand or learn is through stories and so we’ve asked some very talented entrepreneurs and creatives to tell us the stories behind some of the risks they’ve taken.

ZERO

Art, for me, is all about the ultimate relationship between risk and faith. As many artists know, risk exists at every stage of creation: the risk between ideation and technical materialization, the risk of expressing ones soul’s musing, and the pinnacle of risk which is to take the chance to funnel your creative passion to support capitalistic security. Read more>>

Rohan Zhou-Lee

In the lockdown of 2020, I went through anti-Blackness in Asian organizing (as well as some homophobia) as well as seeing how the invizibilization of Asians impacted me as a Black Asian in BLM spaces. I formed the Blasian March to not only combat all the isms, but also celebrate and bring visibility to Black Asians. We are the fastest growing Black mixed race community in New York City and yet we remain widely invisibile. Read more>>

Michael Montague

When it comes to making music now that we have a following, we want to release as much as we can for our amazing supporters. However, something that has been very important to us is making quality or quantity. Read more>>

Trammie Nguyen

I was a little immigrant girl who came to America to have a better future. I grew up in one of the worst Philly neighborhood. I was raised by my grandma and my mother with very little income. I lacked a father figure because my dad was schizophrenic and addicted to drugs and was abusive to my mom. He left when I was very young. Read more>>

Carolyn Carpenter

I think pursuing any kind of career in the arts can be a risk. How will you make money, how will you survive day to day, will people love and appreciate your art? You put yourself on the line both financially and emotionally. Read more>>

April Murphy

Everyone has a pandemic story. I’m no different. Back in February 2020, I was doing shows in Florida. It’s my regular thing to head to Florida for art festivals where the weather is nice in the late winter. As I was finishing up the last of four shows in Boca Raton, people were starting to talk about, trying not to touch their face. Read more>>

Yash Bhatnagar

Growing up, I always harbored the desire for what I perceived as a ‘normal’ career. The idea of pursuing a stable and conventional path was deeply ingrained in my mindset. I envisioned a profession that aligned with societal expectations and provided a sense of security. Read more>>

Rachel Dawn Kling

The entire experience of choosing to work as a creative in today’s unpredictable economy is a giant risk. However, one of the biggest risks I took in my career was also the door for me to be where I am today; which was leaving my salaried position as a visual merchandising manager in the corporate world and going freelance. Read more>>

Terilyn Aquino

The biggest risk I’ve taken is owning the title of “psychic” or “intuitive healer” and sharing my spiritual gifts with the world. Being psychic is not received well by society, at all! You say the word, and people immediately think you’re weird or crazy. Read more>>

Hannah Wert

I worked as part of the in-house creative team at Bai Brands, which later became a part of Keurig Dr Pepper, for five years. What once was a job that included a lot of styling and art directing photoshoots quickly became mostly packaging design over the course of the pandemic. Read more>>

Gavin Bacher

I’ve found in my time as a professional creative that risks always lead to the greatest rewards. From choosing that interesting font to that odd color, or even speaking up when it seems inappropriate. Read more>>

Paige Cole Rodriguez

I believe the biggest I took in my professional career is when I was beginning my online coaching business journey. I had been positioning myself as a mindset & manifestation coach – and was not getting ANY traction at all. Read more>>

Latasha Frye

Fleeing from domestic violence landed me and my family on 120 acres of beautiful land filled with livestock and enough land to feed a small nation. We became ranchers, homesteaders living off the land. That’s when it came to me. I need to make this available for all other women who want out. Read more>>

Shona Houston

As I have gotten older, I have been more willing to take risks – knowing just even 1o years ago that I would have never had enough courage to do so! It started with a solo trip to Colorado, then applying for Nursing School, then deciding to start Travel Nursing – moving away from everything that had been so comfortable for me to experience living and working in a different state. Read more>>

Maureen Horan

In the summer of 2022, I decided to get out of my comfort zone of working for a full-time creative agency and become an independent graphic designer and art director. Since 2012, I have navigated through various roles at creative agencies, in-house positions, and even dabbled in t.v. and radio. Read more>>

Amal Black

When Covid hit, I was met with the challenge of having to pick up where life had left off. I was working for Kay jewelers at the time and have been working so for a year. I was there after having left teaching for nine years looking for a New start at career and lifestyle. Read more>>

Abigail Earthshine Fischer

Pre-covid I was making 95% of my income from classical singing. But something was not quite in alignment. A question kept coming in: “why, all this? What’s the point?” Many of the productions I did were very dark, but didn’t seem to address the heart of the problem, really respond to the darkness, or offer what could be done about it. Read more>>

Marcela Will

I arrived in Colorado from Chihuahua, México, in 2019 with the aspiration of pursuing the “American Dream.” My original plan was to work hard for a few years and then return to my homeland to embark on a new business venture. However, God had other plans in store for me. Read more>>

Brian and Jessica Henry

Frankly, our life together has been built on taking substantial risks. Against the tide of unwelcome advice, we married young—at 21 and 24. Struggling to find our footing in Southern California, we decided to embark on a backpacking journey across Europe, seeking a broader perspective. Read more>>

Julie Skon

The biggest risk that I have ever taken was to go all in, to bet on myself, to heal. I was 19 when I was assaulted, 22 when I lost my love to gun violence, and 31 getting a divorce with two incredible young daughters to raise. In spite of creating what felt like a beautiful life, I had emotionally hit rock bottom. Read more>>

Alexis Evans

Betting on myself is the biggest risk I have ever taken! Over the years, I have experienced a lot of things, being a black woman is lit! It has also required a lot of hard work, dedication and determination, and it doesn’t stop now! Read more>>

Sam Horowitz

I worked an arts-adjacent factory job making molds for ceramic production. The pay was better than anything I’d experienced, and I was learning industrial methods of mold making. I lasted 9 months. Read more>>

Brooklyn Kelly

I believe the greatest risk I’ve taken/continue to take is prioritizing myself. As a creative it is extremely normal to feel the immense pressure to conform to society and listen to people outside of oneself. When I’ve prioritized myself, I’ve found that I have made unconventional choices. Read more>>

Kristin Quiroz Bayona

One of the biggest risks I took was leaving my corporate job to start my podcasting company. I had been in corporate communications for over 15 years, however, I always knew on some level that it wasn’t the right fit. Read more>>

Melissa Kalt

As a medical director and physician on the Best Doctors™ list in the US, I quit my job to follow my Why. I went into medicine because I wanted to help people — to be of great service. Read more>>

Brittany Rosenthal

When I started lifting weights in 2018, I had no idea the impact it was going to have on my life. It wasn’t just a physical transformation; it transformed my entire being. Read more>>

Jennifer Smoak

Sometimes blessings masquerade as disappointments. In the fall of 2021, I decided to leave the education field where I had served successfully for twenty years, to team up with my husband running our family business, Island Inspections. Read more>>

Joy Hearten-Johnson

In order to practice massage therapy within my moral and ethical code, I took the risk of loss of income; by quitting my spa job and working for myself full-time. Read more>>

Laura Chesney-Gadd

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was leaving my steady paycheck, well-paid, comfortable, corporate job in November 2018. Growing up the constant message was college, then a job with a 401k. Read more>>

Lisa Haggis

My favourite way to feel is brave. And that was certainly the dominating emotion when I quit my stable, unionized full-time job to build my own personal brand as a consultant. But the real risk was in HOW I decided to build that brand. Read more>>

Jacobi Mehringer

To me, risk comes to mind as a small red Delta airlines blanket. The kind they give you on red-eye flights. I’ve always been good at change. My dad was military so we moved around every couple of years to a new state. Read more>>

Veronica Wells

My journey as the owner of Seared Pink has been defined by a significant risk I took earlier in my career, a risk that ultimately shaped my path and led me to where I am today. This risk wasn’t a dramatic leap off a cliff but a courageous step forward in a challenging environment. Read more>>

Dennitra Weeden

The biggest risk I have ever taken is starting my own practice. When I was a student studying to be a chiropractor, I knew I wanted to own my own practice one day. Read more>>

Josh Soskin

Every time I’ve taken a risk it’s paid off. EVERY time. In particular I’m reminded of when I wanted to make the leap into proper comedy commercial directing. Read more>>