The chapters in our stories are often marked by wins and losses. Getting a new job, getting fired. Getting a life-threatening medical diagnosis, beating it and getting a clean bill of health. Too often, due to a societal expectation of modesty and humility we are discouraged from talking about the risks we’ve taken that led to those ups and downs – because often those risks draw attention to how we are responsible for the outcomes – positive or negative. But those risks matter. Those stories matter. We asked some brilliant entrepreneurs, artists, creatives, and leaders to tell us those stories – the stories of the risks they’ve taken, and we’ve shared them with you below.

Amadeus Purcell

I cannot stress this enough! You must take risks as a creative, entrepreneur, or entertainer. I’ve had so many magical moments occur in my life and career simply because I wasn’t scared to leap. There comes a time when you have to trust and rely on your divine intuition to guide you from point A to B. Read more>>

Tracy BRACK

Starting a non-profit is definitely one of the biggest risks, I’ve ever taken. After leaving a relationship that was abusive, I had to make sense of what happened to me. I didn’t want to believe that the pain of that experience meant nothing. After being in a domestic violence shelter for some time afterwards, I couldn’t unsee what I had seen. Read more>>

Barbara Marynowski

One of the questions I get asked most often is, “why pickles?” and my response is usually a simple, “why not?!” Delicious food makes people happy and I have found that pickles are universally loved. When people find out that I make gourmet pickles, so many of them literally light up with joy and exclaim, “I love pickles!” Read more>>

Bruno Baltazar

As a high school soccer coach and teacher in the classroom, I am faced with challenges on a daily basis, and part of competing is within my nature. So I decided to take a venture of self publishing a book about another sport I don’t coach but equally enjoy, which is football. Read more>>

Lidia Napoli

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was to choose a life as an artist. It is a great life, but at the same time, a tough one, with many challenges to overcome and many ups and downs. I can say it is worth it, although the struggles, and if I could go back, I would do it again without any kind of doubt. Read more>>

Qiana Miles

After graduating undergrad with a Music Degree in 2011 from Kentucky State University, I made the decision to continue my education pursuing a Masters Degree in Entertainment Business at Full Sail. The program would eventually move me to Orlando, FL. It’s 2012, I made the move to an area where I knew no one and I had never been this far away from home before. Read more>>

Lupie Lotus

The biggest risk I have ever taken has been choosing my career over my circumstances. In November of 2019, when I had been formally introduced to Voyage Media and was also known as FlowerBomb TheLupieMUA, an article was produced introducing my story and skills as a makeup artist. At that time, I had been professionally practicing my craft for about 10 years while coping with diagnosis of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosis). Read more>>

Justin Chinn

Being a creative you take risks daily. Often times you put yourself and your work out there not knowing the feedback or even acceptance from your target audience. That’s a risk. What if they love it? What if they hate it? Are often questions we ask ourselves while in the creating process and especially after. Read more>>

Tracee Fisher

As an educator I love shopping for my students and being able to find the most interesting engaging and fun learning materials. On April 6th, 2019 I had taken the day off work to meet my husband for lunch. He called and said he would be late, so I told him to meet me at the teachers store. I had time so I went to the local teachers store to pick up treats for my students. Read more>>

Caitlin Sullivan

When I initially started my business, it was a fully equipped in-home Pilates studio where I intended to fill my books with back-to-back clients. I absolutely love teaching Pilates and watching the incremental changes in strength and posture happen in my client’s bodies, so a part of this really lit me up and felt fulfilling. Read more>>

Kathleen Mapson

The most life changing risk I have taken was quitting my full-time – good benefits and excellent pay – job in higher education to have more time to grow my art business. I worked in higher education for nearly 16 years as an instructional designer and learning technologist. Read more>>

LaTonia Taylor

There are so many defining moments from my life, since I chose a religion outside of my mixed Southern Baptist and Traditional Catholic family to releasing my Army ROTC Scholarship in the name of that religion and becoming a young 18 year old bride. My choices fed my internal BLACK-Sheep of the family stories or did they? Was I designed to be an interruption to a fear-based, go along to get along, unquestioned mind? Read more>>

Eric Fliss

The story is not a risk taken by me, but rather risks taken by others on my behalf. One of my first professional jobs was that of Production Manager for a theater that played a very important role in the revitalization of Miami Beach. Practically, fresh out of college, I interviewed (with less than ideal credentials) along with some other highly qualified candidates for the Production Manager of the historic and newly renovated Colony Theater. Read more>>

Lindsay Facknitz

When I first started out as an intuitive singing healer, the biggest question was “Can I trust my intuition?” I didn’t become aware of my intuitive gifts of being able to ‘read’ people’s energy bodies while singing to them and simultaneously transfer universal healing energy to them until I was 40 years old. Read more>>

Karina Plemmons

We were growing rapidly as an event after our start in May 2019. And then came March 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic so we had to stop hosting all events. It was then that we took a risk and pivoted to hosting a virtual version of the market on Instagram live. Then in September of 2020 we took the biggest risk and started hosting events in person again. We wore masks and every vendor had sanitizer on their tables. Read more>>

April Morrison

I started working in independent films in 2019 on my own production. It was a very big risk, because I was funding it off the money that I make from my job, and I still do to this day, I made a lot of mistakes by paying people in advance to secure them, instead of putting a deposit only. Read more>>

Penelope Persson.

After 758 days, I finally received my Greencard and I was able to stay and work in the US. My dream was to start my own Yoga business. A big part of my dream was to be able to take my computer with me and teach from any place on the earth. This was a big step for me, knowing that I was brand new to Colorado and I didn’t know a lot of people. Read more>>

Kobe Opare

One of the largest risks I’ve taken in life would be choosing painting as a major in college. To everyone else, it seemed like a rash decision. I was even told I was setting myself up to drive into the wall, but I didn’t let it stop me. Read more>>

 Justin Haynes

The biggest risk I’ve had to take in this career of fashion was, STARTING!!! I left my 8 figure salary…. With 4 weeks of vacation, 2 weeks of sick days, 50 comp days, and my 401k to start a childhood dream. Read more>>

Tee Got Hitz

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was deciding to leave my hometown of Washington, D.C and Moving to Atlanta Ga in late 2005. Early 2004, I was working Home Depot when one day of my coworkers/friends during our lunch break introduced me to a MPC 2000XL. We almost got fired that day because I lost track of time while learning how to make beats on it. Read more>>

Ahni Nichole

When I left college, I didn’t leave as a college graduate. I didn’t leave because I wanted to. I actually wanted the complete opposite. It was during my second year as a Fashion Marketing and Management student, that I came to the realization that I would be forced to leave school due to insufficient funds. Looking at my options, the only route I had was to move back to my hometown in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read more>>

Melissa Heiland

I had spent 17 years in pregnancy ministry in the United States, when God opened the door for me to begin a pregnancy ministry in Costa Rica. It required a huge leap of faith. Following this path would mean working in a different country, language and culture. I would need to learn new laws and new ways of working with clients, volunteers and donors. The costs were high and I was moving into uncharted territory. Read more>>

Christopher Roberts

I had been teaching yoga and Pilates full time for other studios and gyms. I was doing a lot driving around and really Getty burned out fast. I decided to start saving money to buy my own Pilates equipment in order to open my studio. I thought I would work part time on my own business and part time for others.. Read more>>

Jodi Mason

The latest risk I took was moving to Florida… sure it’s been 9 years but it was still a risk. I had no family, in Florida, and did not do my research prior to moving. I had a job with Publix, and on a whim I put in a transfer. I thought there was no way I would get accepted, but 4 weeks later I was in Florida. I had a UHaul that held enough for a 1 bedroom apartment, had sold a lot of stuff, and made it to Florida. I do not regret it at all. Read more>>

Jazmyn Lacey

I’ve taken a risk on almost every asset of business you can name when it comes to being an entrepreneur! Skin care , Makeup &!cosmetics, clothing boutique,Food Business, Authorizing EBooks ! I never limit my self the way the economy is Going I wanted to learn and profit as much as I can for each Trade. Some call me the Jack of all Trades. Read more>>

Anne Caroline Silva

My journey in the USA started eight years ago when I went on vacation to San Diego and decided to look for lymphatic drainage professional. That’s when I first realized that this procedure was not very common here, so much so that I couldn’t find one professional that did lymphatic drainage. This caught my attention, and I thought about it for a long time. Read more>>

Mekahla Billings

Learning the ins & outs of life can be challenging. Realizing hard situations make us the strong people we are today make it a lot easier! All my life I’ve been a risk taker. Growing up I changed schools alot because i took risks! In the moment whether you’re making a good or bad decision the risk you take will always build your character and educate you on something you once didn’t have the knowledge of. I can proudly say my risk taking actions has gotten me to the intelligent, hardworking women I am today! Read more>>

Ema Grant

I have taken several personal and professional risks over the last few years. Professionally, I have made three significant job changes, each with a high potential for failure and few guarantees of success. I completed my internship and first three years of professional work with the same company only to part ways with significant personal and professional trauma. Read more>>

Sefora Adjaho

The biggest risk has to be following my dreams. There’s a lot of ups and downs in the career path that I’m going in that can be mentally draining. There are times where you’re forced to wonder when your next booking will come but something in me will not allow the little version of me down. I’ve wanted to do this since I was three years old. Read more>>

Jenaiya A. Coleman, MA, CA

The biggest risk I’ve taken is making the decision to change Uncover Your Beauty from sexy dance classes for women to Dance Therapy and Life Coaching. The business had grown tremendously over the years. I was able to take bookings whenever I felt like it and even when I took a long period of time off, whenever I had a class, it was always full. Read more>>

Victor Villatoro

The biggest risk I have taken in my 8 year photography journey was taking the Jose Villa Workshop. I didn’t know what I was signing up for, all I knew was that it was the largest financial investment I had made at the time. Read more>>

Sheldon Sonnenberg

In 2021 when I moved to Dallas, TX. I didn’t have a job or opportunity lined up but I understood the power of networking and relationships. My goal was to connect with other business owners and influencers in the community that could help expose opportunities in the area that would fit the criteria I was looking for since I was new to the area and wanted to get a faster start. Read more>>

Mi Kwan Lock

In 2017 I decided to leave Paris to move to Los Angeles, leaving behind me all my friends, the professional network I already had (lead actress of 6 feature films), the comfort of having a free place to stay at… to start a new life in a foreign country, English not being my mother-tongue, not having any network besides few friends, not being allowed to work in any other job than acting because of visa purposes and starting again from zero as nobody knew me there.  Read more>>

Juliet Harrison

The first big risk I took, after earning a BA in Psychology, was to go to get a MFA in photography years 9 years later. I had only ever taken one brief continuing ed class in B&W darkroom work. But I had been working in the administrative end of custom printing labs and had learned much from those amazing printers. I, along with my husband, found a school with a program that was completely suited to an older, self-directed artist. Read more>>

Bridget and Michael Hennessy

Bridget: When we came up with the concept of our balloon art exhibit (Hennessy Balloon Factory) we truly had no idea if anyone would come or not. We weren’t consistently booking jobs yet, so we decided to invite the community to purchase tickets and see our art in person. We had low funds, but big dreams, so we rented out an empty shop in our local mall. Read more>>

Kyri Hayes

The BIGGEST risk I have taken is actually opening up my dance studio back in October of 2018! At the time I was working an hour away from home, trekking up the highway at 4am to be able to make it to work for 6:45am. Read more>>

Christina Calle

I like being on a predictable schedule, maybe I have a bit of OCD when it comes to having a schedule. Having a corporate job I had to plan out my schedule to know when I needed to get stuff done. What time to wake up to get to the gym and then when to leave to get to work on time, etc. So when I lost my job I had to make a huge choice, start over at a new corporate job or finally take the risk and invest in myself. Read more>>

Alex Romo

I like to believe life is made from the risks we choose to take. Now, I’d consider myself a risk taker with one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken being to go after this dream of traveling the world, telling stories, and making a difference all for a living/career. Read more>>

Holly Doubet

When one thinks about it, life is a risk – right? It takes courage to wake up and face the new day for whatever it may bring. I have been through some definite situations: an abortion at age 16, thankfully right after they became legal. A devastating marriage break up at 40 (with two small children in tow) that included a husband having a secret affair with a “friend” of mine during which he cleaned out the family bank accounts and had a mean-ass lawyer on call before I could say what-the-h-e-double-hockey-stick. And so on. Read more>>

Courtney Pasterchick

The idea of perusing a career in art is a risk in itself. There are so many obstacles that come with a creative job opposed to a “normal” 9 to 5, with one of the biggest obstacles being security. When I decided to major in Fine Art in college, I knew that my path would not be easy. Read more>>

Myles Cutchember

Moving away from home was the first big risk I took. I moved to Orlando for college. Stepping out of my comfort zone wasn’t as easy as I thought, yet I still have no regrets. I wouldn’t have met the people I have met or enjoyed the moments that I cherish the most. Who knows what’s right or wrong? Taking a risk is being in control. Sometimes, you have to take that left turn out of pure intuition. If you know you know. Read more>>