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.

Ava Grace Horton

I am definitely a planner. I plan my day, week, months and even try to plan my years out at times. I like things orderly and knowing exactly what to expect, but truthfully, owning a business is the complete opposite. Ever since I was a teenager, I wanted to open a boutique. Read more>>

Kristin Kenyon

I think anytime you forsake stability and an assured income to follow your dreams (especially in a field that is somewhat fringe) you’re taking a risk. Not just financially but with your heart. You’re putting all of your time, effort and money into an idea or passion you d cherish deeply. The thought of something so close to my heart failing or never taking off was one of the biggest fears I had when initially setting out to start my holistic healing business. Read more>>

Britt Bravo

Way back in in the 00’s, I was in my 30’s and ready to make a change. I’d been working with an arts education nonprofit that I loved for 7 years and particularly enjoyed growing their volunteer program from a small group of devoted folks to a 100+ virtual and in person volunteer program. While working at the nonprofit, I’d also been teaching creative career workshops based on Carol Lloyd’s book, Creating a Life Worth Living and loved that work too. Read More>>

Todd Schroeder

From my point of view, risk is an essential element of making art – a necessary ingredient. Risk brings tension. It opens the work to failure and failure is so human. Risk opens the work to misinterpretation, hurt feelings (yours and theirs), unexpected results, growth, mold-breaking… Propelling your endeavor with risk foregrounds questions over answers. Read more>>

Laux The Rapstar

Growing up as an artist, I’ve learned that the best thing you can do to grow your audience is to take risks. Taking a chance was a pivotal moment in my music career. I’ve been writing my own music since I was 10, but I never thought to show what I could do until I was 17. I remember one day I wrote this crazy freestyle to Lauryn Hill’s ‘That Thing’ (Doo Wop) and I sat out in my car, in 80-degree weather for hours until I got through the whole freestyle perfectly. Read more>>

Cristina Johnson

I believe my biggest risk was starting a home studio and small business just three months after the birth of my son. Ever since I became a yoga and Pilates instructor I had the dream of owning my own studio. I was actually really close to buying the studio that I was currently teaching at. So close in fact that I had expressed to the previous owner that I would be ready to take over as soon as April. As in April of 2020. Right before the pandemic. Read more>>

Katrina N. Lewis

Life is about taking risks. When I was young, I understood this in theory, but when I realized how much I loved creating, I had to put the saying to practice. It had started in high school, when fan fiction took over the lives of every adolescent, that I began sharing my writing with a small group of friends. It’d mostly turned out to be fan fiction about them with their respective celebrity crushes. As trivial as it may sound now, sharing my work was a risk. They could hate it. Read more>>

Bethany Lauren James

Well, I was post-college and I was on tour with Max and Ruby, a children’s musical based on a Nickelodeon TV show, and I was paying my bills entirely from theater. Which was the Dream, right? I mean, it’s what I had studied for and spent years of my life in high school and even grade school working for. I had received my Equity card (the equivalent of SAG for stage performers), and I knew the routine of auditioning in my field. Read more>>

Sami Nowlin

When 2020 and the pandemic hit, I was mentally in one of the worst places of my life. While I was fortunate to keep my job, I had a massive pay cut and suddenly several more jobs added to my plate from other employees being let go. Although, I did love my job and was challenged in many ways, it was beginning to take a toll on my mental health. I stuck around through the pandemic for another year, but I was craving something else in my life. Read more>>

JEFF K%NZ

First I’ll say, risks are how you rise. I truly believe that. When I graduated from college I started off with a risk. I moved to Houston TX where no one knew who I was. I moved there with money saved and no job. I told my father before I left, maybe I can get a job cleaning up at a gallery somewhere, get my foot in the door, and then make my way into curating. Read more>>

Brolin Rochelle

So I started my jewelry business April of 2022. I was not sure how things would go but I knew I wanted to do something that identified me and my purpose. I wanted to reach women inspire them in hopes to make them feel good about themselves. I’ve struggled with a few insecurities myself and wanted to create something that made women feel good, look good, own who they are and do it unapologetically. Read more>>

Caley Cline

One major risk that I have taken would be becoming a stay at home mom, all while owning and running a successful business. Being a stay at home mom is a job itself. It was definitely not what I expected when my husband and I decided that was the best route to go with our family. I knew it was going to be hard but I didn’t expect all of the sacrifices and difficulties that came with it. I didn’t always want to depend on my husband so I knew I needed to find a way to make income as well. Read more>>

Lauren Sok

What’s the story behind that painting? Well, it’s so much more than an artwork of colors. What lies beneath its papyrus layers of texture and vibrancy is a series of events. Or a spark that pushed me to jump into my own journey and rewrite its narrative. Eight years ago, I was at a crossroads. I was not living my dream! I had big dreams for my future but did not know how to take the next step. I was comfortable being a spectator by watching all the “cool kids” leap into entrepreneurship like a “choose your own adventure” book. Read more>>

Krysten Hoover

I have three children and a wonderful husband who has always been the “bread winner” of the family. He drives for old dominion Freight line and had been over the road for most of our marriage and all our kid’s life. When i finished college, which I did after marriage and three babies, the goal was to get my husband off the road to spend time with the kids and myself. So that’s what we did. I worked several years at a local small accounting firm where I became the office manager after some time. Read more>>

Meghan Stalzer

After my husband I were married we knew that we wanted to move down to the San Luis Valley. We also knew that we wanted to create a self-sustainable homestead but didn’t know what animals we wanted to raise in the high altitude desert. I came across an article in a magazine called Grit, that talked about Camels and Camel Milk. I was in the living room reading this article and called out to Matt in the kitchen to come see what I found. Read more>>

Afrika Afeni Mills

After participating in an information session with an editor at a conference, I submitted a nonfiction book proposal. This already felt like a risk because I had written a novel a decade before, and hadn’t found a literary agent or a publisher for the book. The nonfiction proposal process felt doable. Creating an outline for the book and writing a sample chapter was definitely doable after writing a 350-page fiction manuscript. Read more>>

Johanne Brouillette

I was approached several years ago by a fellow artist I knew only on social media inviting me to participate in a group show of 12 women abstract artists in the USA. The show if I accepted meant that I would be creating and shipping 2 very large scale paintings. I did some research to see if it was legitimite but knew that I may never get any money from the sale of the paintings and may not even be able to get back the paintings if they did not sell. Read more>>

Jada Elliott

The biggest risk that paid off was stepping out on faith and starting The Bridge Counseling and Consultation, LLC. I was terminated from my position as a hospice social worker and it was either to get another job or launch my private practice. I am so thankful I was more inclined to listen to my inside voice rather than all the outside voices. It was the greatest act of courage and has resulted in the freedom and a life that I love. Read more>>

Leo Rain

When I think of risk in verb form, I see it as choosing a situation with potential turmoil and challenge for the possibility of a certain outcome. As a noun, I see risk as a situation where chance and action meet. Whether the percentage of the negative outweighs the positive, or vice versa, risk always presents the opportunity of missing out on something. In my life one of the biggest risks I have made, and am still making, is pursuing music. Read more>>

Terrance Barksdale

It’s something that I have been going through all of my life coming up. It all started when I was young. I could have been about nine or ten years old. My mother did not have much but the basics to survive food, shelter, and decent clothes. It might not have been what I wanted at the time, but it was still clothes. We were destitute, so I never could get the things I wanted, so I decided to change that and started selling candy. Read more>>

Jordan Welch

Every risk you take may not end with a reward. However, a lesson learned is just as valuable. At the beginning of COVID, I was working as a sales consultant at Shane Company. It was a decent job with decent pay and everyone had side hustles and investments and was a very inspiring environment at the beginning. I met 2 ladies who recently came into some money and wanted to find something to invest in for a quick turnaround profit. Read more>>

Litisha Franklin

When I first started Soul Sarap in May of 2021, my friends allowed me to hold my pop-up events at their brewery every Friday and Saturday. Mind you, at the time, I didn’t have a slightest clue how to run a mobile food business. Working in a restaurant with a full kitchen and equipment is completely different than showing up to a location and setting up your make-shift kitchen. Read more>>

Marsalis Davis

One risk I took was in summer of 2021 where I spent my last dollars to go on tour. This was insane for me especially in the time of quarantine with Covid-19. Thinking to myself, this was the wildest risk I’ve ever taken. Honestly, this was all off of impulse, but however I was ready for the consequences hahaha. I went on a one week south state to state tour with many various artists from my tri-state. Read more>>

Carrie Wilburn

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” There have been two distinct times where I made decisions that shaped my life in so many positive ways even though they were a risk. The first was when I left my career as a school psychologist to pursue a full time position as a firefighter. The second was when I retired from the Lexington Fire Department with 22 years of service. Read more>>

Celena Monique

Taking a risk, sheesh…where to start?! If I had to describe the past 5 years of my life the title “Taking a risk” describes it to a tee. So let’s go back to around 2018, my journey may be similar to probably so many others in trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and then actually figuring the steps. Read more>>

Crissy Conner

In 2016, I had an intense fear of being on video (also as an introvert I never had a desire to be the center of attention). Despite my desire to be behind the scenes and make others look good, I struggled with being on camera, frequently saying “um” and losing my train of thought. I even developed hives and blinked my eyes excessively when on video. Read more>>

Jacqueline Traweek

It may be off putting to start with a mental health discussion, but it’s a HUGE part of my story. Many people see the achiever aspect of my life and story, but truly, I’ve struggled with extreme anxiety most of my life. Somehow, with pure grit, I’ve always made myself “do it scared.” Read more>>

Liz Delaney

I feel like every big life change has been the result of taking a risk… especially a risk when others told me not to take it. The first, and most pivotal for me, was at the age of 19. I was a sophomore in college and was set to graduate before I was 21. I kept thinking I had more life to experience and “there had to be more than this.” Read more>>

Marc & Wren Fegarsky

We were both in director level positions while living in California before deciding to take the plunge and move to London. With the world shut down with the pandemic… we decided to focus on the work we are excited about, and building a business. Since then, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Working for ourselves, building something is satisfying in a way that in incomparable. Read more>>

Amanda Harsche

The biggest risk I have took was packing 4 suitcases and moving from my home town. Starting over isn’t easy. It’s full of risks and anxiety. Read more>>

Naila Francis

I got my degree in journalism. It’s the only thing I ever thought of doing given my love of writing. I spent most of my career writing for daily newspapers in the Philadelphia area. My last job was as an arts & entertainment reporter interviewing artists, creatives and performers from all walks of life, including Pink, James Earl Jones, Elizabeth Gilbert, Idina Menzel, India.Arie, Brandi Carlile and more. Read more>>

Gina Victoria

The biggest risk I’ve taken so far was resigning from my corporate career in finance after 15 years to pursue entrepreneurship full time. I originally operated my makeup artistry business in my home. I converted my dining room into a makeup studio where I would service my clients. After a busy prom season of high schoolers occupying my living room as a seating area, I knew it was a time to expand my territory. Read more>>