Risk is a topic that comes up a lot in our conversations with entrepreneurs and creatives, but a related topic is investments. Investments come in many forms – investing your time, money, heart and soul, etc. So, with that broad definition of investment in mind, we asked rising stars in the community to tell us the stories of the best or worst investments they’ve made.

Floyd Hope Jr

“Honestly, investing in myself — therapy, books, and experiences that helped me grow emotionally and mentally. That’s been the most valuable return.” Especially being a podcaster, it has given me an open mind to understand people opinions. Read more>>

McKinley Hodge

My best investment as a photographer was hiring a business coach, and not just a generic business coach, but one who has done and is still doing exactly what I aimed to do. Before hiring a coach, I was working for scraps. My clients did not value me, and although I worked to produce art they would treasure for a lifetime, I only saw my work to be as valuable as I had allowed others to deem it. I was working, but the money I was making barely covered my own expenses which simply wasn’t enough with a family counting on me. Read more>>

Niki Hardy

I never intended to write a book, let alone be an author of multiple books. For people whose dream is to be published, who’ve spent countless hours honing their manuscripts late into the night, I know it’s deeply frustrating to hear. So let me give you the back story. Read more>>

Vincent Whitehurst

The best investment I made was taking what little bit of money I had back in 2008 and investing it in a self-propelled project along with a buddy of mine. I was an architect working with my friend, a design-build contractor. We were designing renovations to an old building from the 1930’s in downtown Raleigh, NC, just as the downtown was beginning to see redevelopment and investment after being basically abandoned since the 1970s. We were measuring the crawl space and noticing the interesting granite and brick walls… what if we were to excavate this space and create some additional space for the building owner? He wanted to add a third story but we were limited by the zoning code, but we would be allowed dig out a basement. Read more>>

Michael Cumming

One of the best investments I’ve ever made was in myself was my carbon fiber road bike made by 3T an Italian bike brand. The back story behind this purchase was my dedicated approach to road bike riding and racing. I had found a new desire to really put effort towards getting a new bike frame to race with that wasn’t my tried and trusted 11 year old aluminum road bike. The frame was tired and its responsiveness had severely diminished. I’d spoken to my bike fitter and they’d reached back out to me at a time when I had to really think do I want to commit to this now or wait. I decided to proceed and look into the build of the bike. It was a tough decision as there were so many other bikes I was considering but I knew I needed something lightweight, responsive, and relatively comfortable. Read more>>