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.

Dwayne Cook

A moment I took a risk was when I made the decision to turn down A REALLY big Job opportunity, to be in a major film , just to audition for a show that would actually open more doors than I could imagine. In all honesty I don’t regret it at all and I’m truly grateful for each and every experience or opportunity I’m afforded as a performer or even in my art form. I decided to take the risk and not go out for the job even though I wasn’t represented by an agent at the time but something just didn’t feel right about the timing so I decided to follow my Heart and it led me to the most amazing places. Read more>>

Erin Donahue

Leaving my “stable” corporate job at a top hedge fund to be an entrepreneur as a professional photographer and content creator, has been the biggest risk I’ve taken in my life (to date). Even though it’s only been year since I made the jump to be self-employed and freelance, this was a long time coming. I can still remember my graduation commencement ceremony in 2014 when the confetti was falling down from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden, and I was thinking to myself “oh god, how am I going to survive the next 40 years behind a desk?” This was coming from someone who had been working since 15 years of age, and had eight different office internships during college. Read more>>

Sahil Mahajan

In college I started my dj career and I was getting booked a lot in Atlanta and Statesboro. I took a chance on myself during college at Georgia southern. I was 2 classes away from finishing my degree in Finance. I had to choose between staying a extra semester in Statesboro or pursue my Dj career in Atlanta. There is not much growth for a Dj in Statesboro. I bet on myself and didn’t finish my degree to go fulfill my dreams as a Dj in Atlanta. My family is from India. In the Indian culture education is everything. I’ve always been different and believe in myself that you can do anything in this world. Read more>>

Jermaine Fields

I started and launched one of my businesses at the peak of the global pandemic. It was a major risk because most businesses all over the world were closing and deciding to pause their services due to the fact of Covid-19 and the spread of it throughout the US. However, with great faith I believed that my business was meant to stand through whatever could be a circumstance; and so, I continued to build and develop. 2 years later, I am still thriving and expanding, and the Lord has been faithful to His word concerning my business and the advancement of what it will produce in the future. Read more>>

Monica Michelle

Staring a tv network when I had no resources to do so, and had never been in the media space before, was a big risk. I many times thought, “Who am I to build a tv network?” I don’t know anything about this world, but I knew there was a need for it. I knew I had a big vision for it, and I knew that if I wasn’t the one to bring it to form, that this idea – this living energy and vibration of this vision, would eventually be picked up and brought to life by someone else. Read more>>

Daniel Vargas

I retired from the United States Air Force and decide that I wanted to follow my heart in being able to help fellow disabled veterans, first responders and their families that are having a hard time adjusting to civilian life. Read more>>

Jahleel FaReaL

Every move you make in music is about taking risk and most important being confident in yourself. I’ve had to take the risk of believing in my fan base and headlining my own shows. Lucky for me these turned out successful due to consistency, quality and confidence in my music and hustle. Always take risk. Read more>>

Robert Jordan

One of the biggest risks I’ve made in my life thus far was moving away from Georgia to Tennessee, where I currently reside. I left behind family, friends, and many opportunities. At times, I feel that I left incomplete. What I mean by that is I feel like I didn’t accomplish everything that I desired. I didn’t become who I desired, and feel that I didn’t leave the mark as a visionary which I intended. Read more>>

Ground Floor Murals

We set out to be muralists in 2020, amidst the global outbreak of the coronavirus. We took a chance on ourselves by trusting our craft and pursuing a career in the art field. This was a huge risk being that we have never worked as professional artists prior to this endeavor, and we would not have a steady job like we have been used to. Although it was scary to jump into something we have so little experience with, we knew there would be no better time than the present to just go for it. The decision to embark on this journey was easy, though, because we were passionate enough about art and our community to be confident that we can do great things. Read more>>

Dr. Nekeshia Hammond

Whenever I think of risks that I have taken, like starting a business/private practice and delving into multiple entrepreneurial projects while balancing family life, the first thing I recall is the combination of faith and fear. I’m not going to lie, I had a LOT of fear starting my private practice back in 2009. I was terrified to start a business and felt inadequate in terms of being a “business person.” I heard so many statistics about failing businesses. At the same time, I had a lot of faith that things could work out. Read more>>

Carlos Blackwell

I started at the ymca working as a sports coordinator. An was doing good working with the youth an I always love basketball so I started coaching at a elementary school and ymca. From there I had parents say I should take the risk an start my own An one team started an now we have 8!! True blessing Read more>>

Austin Hull

My entire career has been built from taking risks. While it may seem terrifying in the moment, taking risks seems to be the only way to truly scale up in any field. No one just happens to fall into a perfect job where they are happy, financially comfortable, and fulfilled. They have to push their own boundaries, get out of their comfort zones, and take risks. Read more>>

Ramat Dada

Prior to starting my makeup brand, I didn’t realize how much of a risk I was taking. I was just a makeup artist on my college campus who wanted to brand out and create my own products, I grew up with business oriented parents so it wasn’t new to me. After launching Atara Jael Beauté I realized how much of a risk it was. Some people truly don’t know how much work goes behind having your own business, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Nothing good comes easy, you have to be in love with what you’re doing and keep pushing towards your goal. Last year, I took a leap of faith to move to the DFW area for grad school. Read more>>

Kelcie McQuaid

Not too long ago, I answered a message on LinkedIn. A man named Victor was requesting an interview for a company called RoboHood Inc. I stumbled onto their website, full of language barrier typos and images of happy workers, a seemingly small start up in the field of technology, developing the software and tools to create original paintings using a Robot. Yes, you read that right… Robots making art. Read more>>

Benjamin Davis

In 2017, I was firmly placed as a partner and coach for a for profit fitness brand that was rapidly growing across the nation. Since 2014, my family and I lived and served in the O4W neighborhood on one of its toughest, and most under-resourced streets. We immersed our lives in the neighborhood serving the people of the neighborhood through the local church and other community outreach organizations. As we built relationships with many of the residents, we quickly learned of the hardships many of them faced on a day to day basis. Read more>>

Bethany Holmes

Risks, either big or small, can be absolutely terrifying but hopefully exciting. Over the past few months, I have taken many small risks that have given me a new lease on life (like taking my first solo international trip) but the biggest risk I took was moving away from my friends and family to Rhode Island. I was born and raised in Florida and for the last 23 years of my life, I have been content to stay there, close to the people I cared about and the university I studied at. But in April, with graduation only a few weeks away, I knew I was ready for something different. And that’s when I started looking for my next destination, away from Florida and hopefully someplace with four seasons and a chill in the air. Read more>>

Wandee Rivas

One of the biggest risks I ever took in my life was becoming a first-time mom and running a business at the same time. In 2020, I was expecting my first child. As a first-time parent, I wondered how I would balance being a mother and an entrepreneur—especially during such an unstable period in our country’s history. My employer gave me six weeks to decide what choice I wanted to make: to go back to work full time or stay home with my daughter? I made the choice to quit my full-time job and decided that I wanted to focus on raising my daughter while also being able to provide for our family. Since then, I haven’t looked back! Read more>>

Matthew Mealy 3rd.

Writing my more recent book PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES was a life changing risk for me. Allowing myself to be vulnerable and share the story about my challenges, shortcomings, and triumphs is by far has seemed to be one of my largest risk. Over the last 5 years I started to read more and have a greater interest in other peoples stories. That sparked the interest to want to share my story of my life. Two of the books I read was written by author Ross Williams owner of WilliamsCommerce. Read more>>

Nesha J

Honestly, my whole life I have taken risks. I was definitely the dare “angel.” My whole motto was “You will never know the outcome of something if you’re not willing to take the risk.” Taking “risks” is a form of you showing up for yourself fearless and courages. Besides, the outcome can either be “good” or “better”, never bad. Even if it isn’t the results you’d wish you had gotten, you still got an answer that you wouldn’t have got if you hadn’t took that risk. As far as my business(es), each and every one of them was taking a risk. I betted on myself and completely gave up 9-5 jobs. Read more>>

Clay Taylor

I have worked in video production and filmmaking for close to 20 years. I started working in the industry as a student at Texas A&M University. I got a job as a student shooter and editor for the athletic department. I spent over a decade working with the Texas A&M Athletic department, and about 7 years total for a commercial video production company located in college station. About a year ago I started investigating the viability of starting my own business. Read more>>

Zon Carvalho

July of 2020 I had to get out of town, it was hot, as summers are in Phoenix. 110 on average, I headed up to Flagstaff searching for cooler temperatures and some peace of mind. at 7k feet. Thats when I found an old fire station, with a house attached to it and once I saw where they used to park the firetruck, I knew I had a found my new studio, 3 hours away, from my kids, 3 hours away from my network, 3 hours away!!! The five years prior to that date, had been hard and painful. This was my chance, my window of opportunity to take my life and my dreams seriously, to push all the way. To give it a go! Read more>>

Alexis Nicholas

Because we are a military family, we’ve moved cross country twice in 6 years. Because a makeup artist is great because I can obviously work anywhere in the world. But owning your own business means establishing and re-establishing an entire new clientele every time we move. I could do the easy thing and just work for an already established makeup team. But each time, I’ve taken the risk to re-build from the ground up. And I’ll do it wherever we move next. Growth is such an amazing thing, and the risk is definitely worth the reward in this case. Read more>>

Ronda Ray

Everything great in my life has come from getting out of my comfort zone and taking some sort of risk. The saying is true, no risk, no reward. There is a difference between pursuing music as a hobby versus pursuing it as a profession. The difference is, that in order for an artist to succeed in business they must also be an entrepreneur. Few have this capability and as a result, many talented individuals are swindled by “snake oil salesman” who promise followers, streams, opportunity and success. You see, entrepreneurs pull up to the preverbal craps table of life every single day and bet it all on – themselves.Read more>>

Juancho Rodriguez

Everything is risk in this business. From the moment you decide to pursue a project and push it down the development pipeline, you are putting yourself under a tremendous amount of risk, especially when securing financing is still underway. I would like to talk about personal risks, though. And about the moment when you need to make a decision and take a leap of faith. That leap for me was fully pursuing my filmmaking career (now combined with theatre), regardless of knowing the outcome of that choice. Read more>>

Al-Nisa Harris

The first big risk I ever took was moving from my hometown Newark New Jersey , To Atlanta without my family and close friends not knowing how things will turn out for me. It was bit challenging at first . But through out the years Ive been here things gotten easier for me some family/ friends moved out here . I became more stabled with the job I have. I even became comfortable, but not too comfortable I wanted more for myself . That’s when I took my second big risk starting my business “ ALANOFE “ my business is 2 years old now and still going strong .. Read more>>

ERIC BOURASSA

I was a public school elementary music teacher by day, guitar and piano instructor out of my house by night. I was burning the candle at both ends and needed to pick one path. The self-employed path (teaching out of my house by night) had the most potential for growth, but being an elementary school teacher was the safe choice. Older, wiser people told me leaving my full time job was a bad idea. Read more>>

Erika Moore

As of recently, I have taken the risk to move into a space of my own while scaling a business I Co-Own. In this economic environment, I was a little hesitant. Though I am now fortunate enough to mainly live off of the support of the business, living off of a small business can be filled with so much uncertainty. I took this risk because I knew the power of growing in an uncomfortable position. More responsibility puts me in a space with little time to wallow in self-doubt and further develop my ability to swim and even thrive rather than sink. Read more>>

Colby Wilson

I took a huge risk when I resigned from teaching to pursue work in the arts again in 2019. Prior to teaching in the public school system, I worked in events and production. I began working professionally in event management and production as a contracted intern with the National Black Arts Festival (NBAF). I studied music and theatre in college and received my BA in Theatre in 2012 from Clayton State University. After graduating from college, I moved to Haining City, China, and worked as a foreign language instructor. Read more>>

Letrice Mason

I took a risk when starting my own practice. When I was in nursing school, the curriculum has you believing that that the only jobs available were working in a hospital/clinic for someone else. It never gave advice on how to open a practice to work for yourself. After working for other my entire career and seeing how women of color were sometimes over looked or pushed to the side, I decided that I wanted to fill that gap in healthcare and offer a different approach. I offer a space for all women to feel comfortable to open up about all aspects of their healthcare without criticism or feeling rushed. So far, my patients feel happy and heard. Read more>>

Chelsey Salisbury

I took a considerable risk by deciding to expand our brand, Still Austin Whiskey Co., into Louisiana last year. I remember, about a year and a half ago, sitting down with my boss and mentor, Chris Cain, at Hotel Magdalena in Austin, TX and expressing how I wanted to grow within the company and felt that I had done everything that I could for the brand at our home base and in Central Texas. He asked me “If you could do anything within Still Austin, what would it be?” and I told him that I wanted to do something tantamount to what I had done in Austin. Read more>>

Artavia Jones

On July 11, 2008 I decided to take a risk and move out of my small hometown of South Bend Indiana & move to a larger city Atlanta Georgia with my family. I came to Atlanta first with two twin daughters at the age of two years old and left my husband in Indiana at our home that we had recently purchased to show him that we can move to a bigger city for better opportunities. I had a plan , I attended The Art Institute of Atlanta for fashion for about one year and I decided that I wanted to continue my career in the beauty industry. Read more>>

Kayla Sutton

One of the biggest risk that I’ve taken has got to be in 2020 when I decided to quit my day job in order to pursue my acting and film career full-time. At the time, I was represented by my agent but, I hadn’t booked my first SAG television or speaking role yet. I had no idea how I was going to do it but I was determined that somehow, some way, I was going to achieve this. Read more>>

April Watkins

I came up with the idea of doing paid virtual sessions where individuals would join via Zoom or Teams call and I would discuss different topics each session. These individuals would learn about improving financial health and credit as well as walk away with great content (PPT, PDF, Excel Documents). However, I made the decision to upload these sessions on YouTube where ANYONE can watch these videos free of charge. I’m taking the risk of not receiving payment upfront but it’ll benefit me long term if I get enough Youtube likes and subscribers. Read more>>

Anthony Maddox

I’ve took a big risk as a youtuber putting my all on a platform and wasn’t sure on how to get views, or getting people attention wasn’t sure how to get paid or anything. But i stuck with it and just was myself thru the whole process and more of less it not about who you are it’s about what you do people would love watching your videos just for you your personality. Read more>>

Margaux Underwood

My whole adult life has been about taking risks; from living out of a school bus with my brother, moving across the country to be with a man I fell in love with, or deepening the work that I offer and increasing my rates in the process, it’s all a risk. Risk is about getting out of your comfort zone in order to expand your limits and potential; in order to reach greater heights, we must first descend into greater depths. Read more>>

Kj Dunn

Deciding to publish my work was an extreme risk. I’ve been a writer what feels like my entire life but I have never felt confident enough to publish my work for people to purchase. It’s a scary feeling because being a creative, your passionate and sensitive about your work. I didn’t know how my book would be received so I battled for the better part of a year before I finally made it available to the world. Read more>>

Crystal Holloway

Big risks for a small family. In 2020, covid hit our family hard. My mom passed away and then my job was just gone. I was in sales and covid shut them down. We lost half our income and my husband, who was working 3 jobs had become essential in his full time job. So to help cover losing my job and his 2 part time jobs we thought let’s open our own business because we are crazy. So Florida Boys Company was born. We made all natural soaps and beard oils . It was awesome, until Florida switched its rules around. Read more>>

Anthanet Smiley /Nettie Boo Pickles

When you are in Business sometimes you are challenged to take a risk. Whether the risk is big or small you pray the adjustment is successful. This past January, after seeking help from others with little or no response, I invested in myself and paid to attend a Candied fruit class. This class provided a wealth of knowledge about my craft. The investment has already paid for itself and allowed me to add new items to my Menu. Read more>>

Jessica R

Life is about FAITH, but some may confuse it with RISK. Nobody really knows but “Heir Attire” was once “An HeiressesCloset” back in 2017/2018 & it also had little to no sales In 2020 I did a re-branding and changed the name what most know now as HeirAttire LLC. I never stop believing even though I had to invest almost 4000 out of my own money just on clothes to be a boutique that had everything on hand (And I had a hefty amount of inventory). Some may think that’s way too much and some may think that’s petty change, but me? I knew it was me putting my all into it…. I had FAITH and it flourished. Read more>>

Raye Asia Lauris Bovian

My biggest risk is the new collaboration with Walmart. Lauris Couture is a luxury brand and Walmart has decided to “shake things up” by Store Design, Innovation and Experience. This exciting change could not have happened at a better time. Read more>>

Stephanie Dorcius

A risk that I have taken is to initiate the YOUPI Creole TV. For many who does not know the background of our channel, when the story is shared, it leaves many inspired. As previously mentioned, this project was driven by my son and the passion to educate generations to come of their heritage language as well as leave a representational of their culture. I recall thinking this through for months, discussing it with my husband and my best friend which they thought was an original and amazing idea. Read more>>

Kre’Shai Patt

I personally feel that you can’t not embody being a entrepreneur until you understand what taking risk is like. Running a business is already a risk, you have days you make nothing not a dime. You have days you make so much you could cry. You have days where you are nervous and days where you wake up confident and ready to go. This ain’t easy but it’s worth whatever you want it to be. In 2018 things happen in my life that i felt were really gonna stop me in my tracks. I was working so hard to stay afloat mentally that i didn’t realize I was letting my business fall behind. Read more>>