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.

Ray Hanna

Taking risks has always been a defining feature of my life—though I didn’t fully realize it until now, when I have a family and a more stable existence. Looking back, I see that risk-taking wasn’t just about daring; it was about passion—an intense drive to embrace situations with uncertain outcomes. Read more>>

Stephan Cote

Taking risks is often easier said than done. I’d even say it’s always easier said than done! One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken was walking away from the stability of a job I had always known to step into the unknown world of self-employment. It wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I was convinced that risk wouldn’t come without significant challenges. Yet, it was a decision that ultimately redefined my life and career in ways I could never have imagined. Read more>>

Oxana Americana

In 2014, I made the pivotal decision to advance my career by leaving my full-time position as a makeup artist with a renowned brand. While the prospect of transitioning to freelance work was daunting, it ultimately proved to be a rewarding choice. To prepare for this leap, I ensured I had a strong portfolio and secured contracts with several high-profile clients. This led to the opening of my first studio, where I not only worked with clients but also hosted masterclasses. Shortly thereafter, I expanded my skill set by studying hairstyling. Although the journey was filled with both challenges and triumphs, I am grateful for the courage to take that initial step, as it has shaped my career and brought me to where I am today. I remain thankful for all the experiences, both the successes and the obstacles. Read more>>

Brianna Bryant

I took a risk when I started this business. I remember my senior year of college, wanting to explore photography more deeply, and all sorts of thoughts flooded my mind. Would I be successful? Was I wasting my time? What if I couldn’t get clients? What if I wasted money buying all this equipment? What if, what if, what if. Read more>>

Camila María Bermúdez Ortiz

Applying for NYU’s Master’s in Screen Scoring Program has been probably one of the biggest and scariest risks I’ve taken. Mostly because I had applied to their film program, got rejected and felt like my whole life crumbled at that moment, and I didn’t want to feel that disappointment again. Read more>>

Anna Astarte

The biggest risk I’ve taken was leaving my stable career as a manager to pursue my passion for trichology. For seven years, I struggled with damaged hair after bleaching it blonde. No treatments or products seemed to work, and I was frustrated and curious about why nothing helped.

This led me to start learning about hair health, and the more I studied, the more I fell in love with trichology. I realized that I wanted to help others who were struggling with the same issues. Read more>>

Danielle Clack

The biggest risk I’ve taken that has completely changed my life for the better is being open about my spiritual gifts. There is a stigma attached to words like psychic, medium and all of those other things.

I didn’t just run to telling people about my gifts. I did sort of a soft launch especially since I was still coming to terms of my gifts as well. It was all new to me and I didn’t have a foundation yet of my path and beliefs. I remember sitting down one day in my apartment after giving an extremely accurate reading to another friend. Everyone was supportive, skeptical, loving and trying to understand this “new” me. I wasn’t someone who was into astrology or numerology so all of this was new to everyone.  Read more>>

Cathye Dowda Cota

In 1998, I moved to a new town and began a 20+ year career in HVAC manufacturing. When COVID hit, I made the bold decision to leap into real estate, with no prior experience or knowledge of how to start. From day one, I never allowed fear or doubt to creep in—I simply believed in myself and got to work. Since then, I’ve been a top producer every year, doubling my sales thanks to the trust and referrals of friends and family. I’m proof that taking a chance and betting on yourself can lead to incredible success. Read more>>

Bianca B. King

In 2008, as the world faced the Great Recession, I took a risk that would define my life. I left a secure corporate career in commercial real estate to start a marketing agency, Seven5 Seven3 Marketing Group, with just $700. That money bought me two essentials: a reliable laptop and a plane ticket. Those items were my springboard into a new world of possibilities. Read more>>

Robin Rippey

It was a risk to start vending with pop up in public markets. It takes a time and monetary investment. You need to buy supplies, a tent, stands, weights, vendor fees, etc. Then there is you time spent out there, submitting applications for shows, researching shows, marketing and meeting other professionals to network yourself. Then there is the biggest risk, do you have a product will buy? Every artist wonders during their first few shows, is this risk worth it? We’re all very sensitive about our craft, no matter how small or big, and to put ourselves out there for the world to see if anyone wants to take a piece of it home…we’re so aware of it, of people looking, critiquing, maybe they like maybe they don’t. Read more>>

Ricky Frable

I read a Bill Burr quote a while back that was something along the lines of:

“There’s no risk when you go after a dream. There’s a tremendous amount to risk to playing it safe.”

On April Fools Day of this past year, I quit my job in tech sales. Not only did I quit, but I turned down a six-figure promotion to pursue a path where the thought of making that kind of money is basically a pipe dream.

Few would call that decision risky. Most would call it plain stupid. Read more>>

Makayla Spielman

A risk I took in 2022 was quitting my job to enroll in cosmetology school. Here’s the backstory: I was working in a well-paying financial position as a branch manager, surrounded by amazing coworkers. However, I came to a difficult realization that my life felt incomplete working in an office that didn’t allow me to express my creativity. Don’t get me wrong, I was always decorating and celebrating the different holidays, but it was not my full potential. I believe there is much more to life than just waking up and going to work. (They say love what you do, and you won’t work a day in your life, it is so true!) I resigned in July and wouldn’t start school until September. Read more>>

Christine Braneli

As a licensed chiropractor and fitness instructor serving women in the gym and my. private practice, I kept feeling the nudge to open a new business. I love chiropractic and helping others be more healthy, but it was an itch that wouldn’t go away. I wanted it to be something different from health&fitness where it could feel more fun and light-hearted. (healthcare can feel burdensome as a provider when you’re helping people out of pain) Read more>>

Chandler Ryan

Any success I’ve had as an actor has been the result of walking through fire and doing the things that seem impossible. I’ve learned to trust my gut, even when my truth doesn’t look like everyone else’s. I lived in Los Angeles for 5 years, and after awhile, you start to feel crazy. You hear “no” day in and day out, sometimes going years without success. I started to lose sight of who I was as an actor, trying to conform to what other people were doing or what I thought the casting team wanted to see from me. This was the time I had the least success. During my last year in California, I got an audition for Disney’s “Bunk’d.” The week prior, my car had been impounded, I was at risk of being evicted from my apartment, and I hadn’t booked anything in over a year. Read more>>

Allison Brito

The decision to leave a steady and respected career in management consulting to start my own business was quite easily the biggest risk of my life. For almost 6 years, I thrived in the structured environment of consulting, with a clear career trajectory and consistent and healthy income. Yet, I was not passionate about either the work nor the clients, and the work environment began to infiltrate my ability to be a present partner and mother to my 2 year old daughter, Sofia. Read more>>

Kristy Kurjan

No doubt, putting one’s art into the universe is an intimidating endeavor. By opening up and letting others see one’s creations you will inevitably be critiqued, judged, and the topic of conversation. As a working artist, the hope is that when you put your heart and soul into a piece of artwork, that “buzz” is positive, or at least, thought invoking. Unlike other occupations, artists often take pride in incorporating their inner most emotions and personal points of view into their projects. The more elevated the work, the more raw we are, and thus, the harder it is to share. When I first starting sharing my paintings with friends and family I received a few “not so inspiring” responses including: Read more>>

Buni Eisdorfer

Imagine having a particular career painted in your mind. This career epitomized not only the rest of your professional life, but directed value towards your self worth.
Now imagine this career will never come to be. No matter how hard you try. No matter how badly you want it. No matter how much it hurts when you’re denied. Read more>>

Heather Lafond

One of the biggest risks I have taken was choosing to build a business that defies industry norms. While most entrepreneurs in the personal development space chase the traditional coaching model, I chose to fully embrace my authentic gifts as a psychic medium and energy healer. Read more>>

Beth Cooper

Someone once told me “no,” and that turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me! The story of Bluebird Studio is part of a plan that developed slowly over many years and finally came to fruition in 2022. We moved to Santa Fe in early 2018 after living in Denver for 30 years. We owned a second home in Santa Fe for over a decade and always had in the back of our minds the idea of moving permanently to New Mexico. Although retirement for my husband was years away, we both wanted to find a property where he could have horses and I could pursue my passion for art. Read more>>

Robert Giosa

In 2017, I faced a decision that would forever alter the course of my life. At 25 years old, working in a call center for an insurance company just outside Philadelphia, I was juggling my first startup while living the grind of a 9-5 job. It felt like a huge risk at the time, but little did I know, it would become the defining moment that pushed me into the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. The journey I embarked on would teach me the true meaning of risk, failure, reinvention, and ultimate reward. Read more>>

Evergib

Since being together, risk-taking has been a constant in our lives.

We first met at the VCU Brandcenter, a two-year master’s program in advertising located in Richmond, Virginia. Friends for over a year, we officially “came out” at the school’s annual prom – much to the surprise of our classmates as we are polar opposites in personality and work style. Read more>>

Jalene E. Murphy

I was fortunate to be in a loving and thoughtful heterosexual marriage for 15 years. Throughout my marriage, I gradually realized I was sexually attracted to women. My husband stood by my side as I grappled with the slow, painful unraveling of my sexual identity and the daunting struggle to make sense of it all. He was my anchor, unwavering in his support as I grew, evolved, and transformed. At 38, I experienced a defining moment of profound clarity around my sexuality—a revelation that reshaped my life and set me on a new path. Read more>>

Kelly Story

For many years of my adolescent life, it felt as if I hadn’t lived a day without experiencing self doubt and insecurity. At some points, I have memories of being consumed by it to the extent of second guessing my purpose, belonging, and future. When I fell into the well of the fitness industry, that was the single instance where my life experience began to slowly revolve and face the opposite direction. To shorten a multiple year long narrative, after fitness became a universe where my purpose had been hiding all along, I began to experience what self confidence and taking back the power of my own life felt like. Once I found it, I was unknowingly waiting for the moment to harness it and create the second half of my story. Read more>>

Hannah Rios

The day I decided to take a risk that would entirely change my career field—and possibly my life—was the day I chose to quit my comfortable job and life to pursue my dream.

Looking back, I realize it was a slow buildup to this moment. I had always been involved in and in love with photography. I captured every moment I could, asked people to pose, and taught myself how to shoot and market my work. The cameras, backpacks, and sceneries changed, but the idea remained constant: I wanted to be a professional photographer, a photojournalist—someone who could preserve memories in physical form. Read more>>

Jillian Cruzet

Picture this: A young therapist stepping into the world of private practice, leaving behind the hustle of non-profit and school-based work. The pace is slower, the relationships are deeper, and yet, uncertainty lingers. Who is she as a therapist? How does she bring her authentic self to the room, all while trying to build a caseload and make a living? It’s a journey filled with anxiety, self-doubt, and the ongoing search for clarity. Read more>>

Mallory Hoggard

The biggest risk I’ve taken in my design career was to leave my steady job and branch out as an entrepreneur. I have great respect for the employers I had before, as they helped shaped me into the business owner and designer that I am today. Read more>>

Anthony Valdés-strickler

Before I could really think for myself, my parents took a lot of risks. We moved around a lot when I was a kid. I spent time in Guatemala during middle school as my parents built an evangelical church there. But my personal, first, and biggest risk was moving to New York. Read more>>

Rose Luardo

Risks! Take them! Take as many as you can! Pile them on your plate. Grow and groom your risk-taking addiction. The risks I’ve taken have led to fat failures and success stories, but beyond this, a risk grows your artistic practice. Risk teaches you how to fail well, talk back to fear, and trust your instincts. I’m in the risk business and arrived here after a few decades of performing live in bands, sketch groups, performance art shows, comedy performances, plays, happenings, and anything in between. Here’s what I’m talking about when I say take a risk: say yes to a project that scares you, say yes to a project you’d normally say no to, get up and do something with little or no plan, try something outside of your skill set, get into something you might not do well, force yourself to let go of perfection. Read more>>

Alanna Addison

In 2019, I made a pivotal decision that changed the trajectory of my life. Although I had never considered myself a risk taker, I knew that stepping out on faith was my only path forward.

My journey began with a young marriage that ended in divorce. Before the dissolution, I had everything planned—my career, my next steps, and a life that felt predictable and secure. But then, I found myself working as a pharmacy technician in a dead-end job that barely paid more than minimum wage, and I realized something had to change. At the age of 21, I had my whole life ahead of me, and I was not going to settle for stagnation. I was young, talented, and motivated, yet I was stuck. That realization sparked a shift. Read more>>

Tom Coletta

I graduated college (WPI in Worcester Mass) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 and worked as a manufacturing engineer and Project Manager. It was safe and paid fairly well but I was always stressed and anxious. On the side I was filming YouTube videos reviewing cars and I knew that made me happier. in 2019 I took a big risk and quit my full time job to focus on YouTube as my primary job. There was just enough income to pay my bills but it was nowhere near my salary. Thankfully the risk paid off and within just a few months the channel took off and I had a promising career doing what I loved. Read more>>

Hannah Donovan

I’ve taken quite a few risks in my life in service of carving out a space for my art practice, with the most recent risk taken this past year. At the beginning of 2024, I was living in Los Angeles and working at a temp job I absolutely hated. I’ve never liked on-site work with a super regimented schedule, I’ve never felt good working in a big corporate building with no natural light. No one goes outside! Some don’t take lunch breaks! I create my best artwork when I have ample time and space to myself, and when I can connect to nature, and between the hours at work and the long commute, there just wasn’t time to create, and my inspiration felt squashed. Read more>>

William Loopesko

By the age of 27, I felt I had achieved the moderate success that most young Americans strive for. I had a master’s degree in civil engineering, which had secured me a good, low-stress engineering job with a reputable company. That job provided enough stability to buy a house, and I spent many happy weekends climbing and skiing in the mountains, working on the house, or hosting big parties for friends on the stone patio I had built in my yard. I had a dog and a girlfriend, and in every way, it felt like I was on the same idyllic path as my friends who were settling down, getting married, and starting families. Read more>>

Courtney Bryan

Two years ago, my life was turned upside down. I was working for $10 an hour at a cleaning job, struggling to make ends meet as a single mom with a toddler, and trying to figure out how to pay all the bills on my own for the first time. Then, tragedy struck—my dad died in a sudden, devastating accident. Losing him was a wake-up call in so many ways. I realized, in the midst of my grief, that life is too short and precious to spend it working for someone else’s benefit while missing out on time with the people who matter most. I didn’t want to wake up one day and regret the memories I hadn’t made because I was tied to a job that didn’t value my time or my potential. Read more>>

Jackie Arvizu

I decided to take a risk by putting myself out there on my first and second postpartum journey . I started posting for accountability just to notice a lot of interaction . I then tried to jump into marketing through Amazon as an affiliate and now I’m sharing my experience with other likeminded mamas looking to get in shape and find their joy in movement . I knew little about fitness yet alone marketing but I’ve been doing everything through trial and error . Due to embracing it head on and learning what’s it like to be in a similar fat loss journey it’s allowed my story to reports others and has opened an opportunity to work with Planet Fitness & continue to build my community of women supporting woman while making income on the side . Read more>>

Michele Pruitt

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken was leaving my corporate job as a single mom of two, including a child with special needs, to pursue my business full-time. While that decision might seem like a straightforward leap of faith, the backstory leading up to it is anything but simple. Read more>>