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.

Kaity Heart

My whole life has been one big risk. One right after another. In fact, at this point I don’t think I could live a normal existence without the thrill of the risk. In my short years on this earth; I pursued a degree in the arts, I’ve started and ended podcasts, done radio work, sang with countless bands, opened and ran a business for 12 years with absolutely no previous experience and then chose to close it to pursue singing full time…at the beginning of another recession. Read more>>

Spencer Mumford

Alrightyyyyyy, I moved to Los Angeles, CA on February 13, 2022. And I booked a TV Show in Atlanta 2 days after I moved to LA. I’ll talk about that later. Anddddd well that might’ve been the stupidest thing I’ve ever done orrrr it might be the greatest choice I’ve ever made. Time can only tell from the outside looking in and from my point of view as well. lol. Read more>>

Michelle Wren

Every time I put pen to paper, it’s a risk. This risk could come at any time during the process. It could be when I first sit down to write when I realize that the idea in my head just doesn’t translate to language. This is when the ugly face of fraud comes looming around the windowpane. However, the risk is most apparent when the words become truth. Read more>>

Lauren Wolverton

I’ve recently taken the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life. I quit my full time job and started my own company with about $2,000 in my checking and savings accounts combined. Here’s how it happened. Read more>>

Morgan Hancock

My most current Art Exhibit Project was a significant risk because I wanted it to be more than just an Art Exhibit; I wanted it to be a way to raise funds for local nonprofits. The way that made the most sense to raise funds was to have each art piece, which in this case was a hand-painted custom-designed Bourbon Barrel, sponsored by a bourbon brand or a local company. Read more>>

Cortney Hendrix

Going part time at a job to pursue my goals. I really and truly believe that God will make you so uncomfortable to move you. I’m always uncomfortable and now I know that in this season it’s time for me to move. I call it divine direction. People will see you as being extraordinary, not knowing what you have is actually extraordinary backing of God. Read more>>

Harley Walker

I gave myself permission to call myself an artist/puppeteer/storyteller. Giving myself permission allowed myself the freedom to no longer wait around for someone else to tell me I was allowed to create. I started saying yes to myself anytime I had an idea that sparked joy. Suddenly, I found myself making all the time. I would still audition but I didn’t wait around for a yes from someone else. When I started saying yes to myself, Read more>>

Chauntia Postell

When you are someone who has struggled with anxiety most of their life everything feels like a “RISK”, right? But, when I think about a life changing risk that shifted not just my trajectory but my perspective on life completely it would definitely have to be choosing to study abroad for 6 months in Kerala, India. In November 2014, I was completing my first semester of graduate school for my Masters of Social Work degree. Read more>>

Sandy Rodgers

It all began one day in August, the summer of 1992, when Sandy was taking her three sons – Malcolm, Darryl and Chantz – on a trip to Atlanta, GA. Actually only one of the three, Malcolm, did she labor with for three days to give birth and bring a new life into this world The other two had been adopted into Sandy’s family, like so many others were. Malcolm was 16, Darryl was 17 and Chantz a mere 2 years old. Read more>>

Betsy Busche

Studying art in college, I realized that I could not translate what was in my head to the paper or canvas the most art students do. My brain just doesn’t work that way, so I gravitated toward photography. At one point I started ripping images apart and fell in love with collage. My process is very much about taking what I have and creating something beautiful from the pieces. This is when I embraced designing with found objects. Read more>>

Tara Campos

My entire life has involved taking risks. I graduated college to enter the field of journalism. After a few years I developed job dissatisfaction and reinvented myself as a high school English teacher. After moving up the ladder to school administration I was dissatisfied for similar reasons as before. When I informed people in my life that at the age of 40 I was leaving another career – one I invested 15 years in – to work as a personal trainer and a Pilates instructor they thought I was crazy! Read more>>

Crystal Hines

Risk-taking is trusting the process. Trusting that the Most High has the best plan for me. I’ve taken a few risks when it comes to my business, spending my own money buying merch for pop-up shops, hoping to get that money back. Some art shows are expensive, so I’m taking a risk by hoping I can sell a few items. I also feel like when you start new paintings you are taking a risk because sometimes you do not know how the results will turn out. Read more>>

Shauna Van Mourik

Trusting your gut and having faith in yourself and your abilities are some of the biggest perceived risks that you can take. I know it was terrifying for me. I had followed what others told me was the “right” path all through adolescents and well into adulthood (took the courses, attended the schools and did the things that would give me a “good” career/relationship/etc) before I started to realize why I felt unaligned with the reality that was a life created FOR me, not BY me. Read more>>

Mel Shipman

In 2018, I was faced with making some major life-changing decisions in order to preserve my peace, happiness and wish for a bright future. At the time, I was in a very unhealthy marriage and it had taken a severe toll on my mental and emotional wellbeing. I was afraid to leave but I knew that if I didn’t, I would find another, more permanent way to escape the pain I was experiencing. Read more>>

Brooks The Boy

Early this past year I was offered a full time position to create social media content for an artist. Financially it would’ve been the most I would’ve ever made and given me something I haven’t had before, stability. But it would’ve caused me to put some dreams of mine on the back burner. Read more>>

Valerie Y O Kim

In 1987, Hawaii, I was presented with a group with a problem. Soviet and American children wanted to have their second Peace Camp and were looking for resources. The American organizing group was called the Youth Ambassadors, out of Washington State, with friends on Maui, Hawaii and all over the US. Read more>>

Marcus Owens

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was the one I took on myself and creating a business out of thin air literally! I come from a city “ Baltimore” where it’s not known to have much or anything up subsistence so to start a business let alone a podcast business in the height of Covid was crazy but I knew if I could just start then it would work out it had to. I’ve invested about $36,000 into this I’ve gone homeless for a dream only I could see nobody knew the pressure I was under I had an old co-host take money from me and abuse my generosity, Read more>>

Zain Moosa

Despite having a steady job, I was always on the lookout for new opportunities to grow and make a difference. One day, I came across a business opportunity that I felt had a lot of potential. However, the opportunity came with a lot of risks and required a significant investment of time more than money. Read more>>

Je’Rell Rogers

In May 2021, after practicing law for 8 years, I decided to run for a criminal judge seat in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Depending on who you asked, some people thought I was too young to run. Some thought I needed more experience, particularly since I was challenging an incumbent with about five times my experience. Many, given the political nature of the race and politics at the time questioned the very motives behind my candidacy. Read more>>

Susan Blum

The time I took a risk was in 2020, the year I started my coaching practice. I was recently divorced and hadn’t worked for a long time because I was a stay at home, homeschooling mom. In addition to all of that, living with chronic pain and illness. It was a very scary situation as you can imagine. I had a lot of obstacles including being in the midst of a pandemic! I met with my first client via Telehealth and others had phone call sessions. Read more>>

Brooke Yamada

Before I started my food account, I heavily debated it. At the time, I was very worried about what others would think of me to the point it held me back from doing many things I wish I did. At first, I just committed myself to post pictures of food on my stories on my main account. But eventually, it got to a point where I had too many pictures on there. So, from encouragement from a friend at the time, I started the account. Read more>>

Benjamin Brockman

It always feels like a risk to put your work out there. Even if it’s just on instagram – no matter how hard an artist works to compartmentalize their work from other aspects of their life, it’s hard not to feel a little exposed. I’ll spend hours with something, just me and the work, and in that time, it feels like an intimate space. No one is watching you or directing you except that internal compass informed by whatever you’re inspired by or whatever you’ve experienced. To put that out there in front of everyone is always a little scary, but it’s part of the thing we do as artists. Read more>>

Gardy Beaucicaut

media, racial injustice, human trafficking, and the belief system. It is very easy to conform to the patterns of the world, instead of living to be the change within it. Furthermore, in March 2020 not only were we faced with the COVID-19 virus, but during that year, we dealt with racial injustice regarding the death of George Floyd, an 85% increase of human trafficking from 2011-2020, media controversy conditioning the minds of man kind on what to think vs how to think. Read more>>

Janna Coumoundouros

I’ve had social anxiety my entire life but as a kid growing up in the 80’s/90’s I was labeled as “shy.” I didn’t understand why my whole body would freeze and go numb when called on to read something in class. Or why in college when I went to the cafeteria it was so crippling that I couldn’t eat or my hand would literally shake and spill the food off my fork. I thought I was being ridiculous and just needed to get over it. Needless to say when I graduated and started interviewing for jobs I thought I would literally die. Read more>>

Valeria Ruiz

The biggest risk I have taken and by far the most rewarding has been moving to the U.S. from Colombia at 17 years old. I grew up in Bogota, Colombia where I attended an all-girl catholic school. In Colombia, 11th grade is Senior year and I had one more year left of school to graduate with my lifelong friends. However, I made the decision to turn my life around and move to Atlanta. The only way for me to move there was to do it before I turned 18, so my stepdad could claim me and file the paperwork for me to become a resident and then a U.S. citizen. Read more>>

Jackeline Banuelos

I separated from my husband after almost 8years together in 2019. I was the loneliest, most broke & most stressed I’d ever been. Keep in mind, I was a stay at home mom while I was w him., at the time and was in bit of a limbo..Wasn’t really working towards anything, when we separated I didn’t know who i was without him. He’d provided for me for so long that I became dependent on him & was nothing without him. Read more>>

Rose Whear

Prior to being a freelancer I had dabbled in photoshop for the old greatestjournal/tumblr days… but following my parents advice I went into Healthcare as a Dental Assistant, where I kicked ass for 6 years. That’s when covid hit and I had no clue what we were going to do! The Dental field was one of the first to be jobless… I had to take a risk. That risk was jumping back into the freelance world. I took my skills I knew and grew Rose Ella Media. The biggest risk I could have taken for my family. Read more>>

Stetson Nelson

The first big risk I took in my life was quitting professional baseball to pursue a career in music. I stopped playing baseball in 2016. I had finished my undergrad and was back home trying to get my bearings on what I wanted to pursue. I ended up having the opportunity to move to Nashville, TN in the beginning of 2017. I was literally days away from taking a job with an insurance company, Read more>>

Marylyn Phan

approximately a year and a half ago, I woke up and felt completely out of body. I attribute this feeling to my frontal cortex being fully formed at that exact moment (lol) Read more>>

Paul Bryant

I left a 20 year career to lead a floundering non-profit organization. I was a business banker with Wells Fargo managing a $75 million small bunnies portfolio when a community service organization applied for a line of credit. In short, their recent credit history was not stellar. They lost their United Way backing, burned through half million in reserves, and discontinued programming. It was a textbook case for mismanagement. Read more>>

Thomas Nguyen

It is never too late to pivot to your dream job! From 1994-1998, I worked my ass off to get into the best law school in Texas. After three miserable years in a job I had no interest in, I left. I did not have a backup job or plan. I spent the next three years trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was 27 at the time. Read more>>

Kierston Parks

I take a risk each and every time I pick up my camera and show up for a shoot. I risk all the unexpected. I risk facing failure. It is all a risk. But it almost always leads to growth some how. Every time I show up for a shoot I leave with automatic endorphins. I remember why I am here. I remember my purpose. Read more>>

Stephanie Norman

I think that the biggest risk that I take, each time I practice or perform improv, is in my character work. Over the years I’ve found that the characters that I develop in my scene work are actually different versions of myself. Some positive, some not so much. So, I feel like when I’m developing these “characters,” I take the risk of exposing my true vulnerability towards my scene partner and/or audience. Read more>>