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.

Pastors Devin & Samantha Westbrook

There are times in life you need to take the risk and bet on yourself. The greater the risks, the greater the reward. We’ve been married 15 + years, and getting married was the first of many risks. We didn’t have all of our i’s dotted or t’s crossed, but we were sure that our destiny was connected. Read more>>

Brieanna Carter

Well when starting The Spoiled Brat Life so many people doubted my vision. They told me I needed to change my name, I was trying to do too much at once, I’m too young, it was so much!! So I finally took a risk and quit my job January 1st 2020 and I asked the lord to just bring me 2 clients a week so I can pay my bills and I will figure out the rest. Read more>>

Taylor Gentry

I’m in the middle of the biggest risk of my life. My wife and I are moving to LA to pursue our dreams in the entertainment industry. I’m uprooting everything here in Murfreesboro, TN and re-establishing my podcast in California in the hopes of growing it beyond its potential and hopefully expanding into TV. Read more>>

Anna Santoro

After getting my feet wet in different careers, such as hospitality, sales, & teaching in a school district, I found myself searching for an avenue that I felt passionate about. I have a undergrad degree in science & have always enjoyed learning. I found a Physical Therapist Assistant program at Mesa College in San Diego and was excited to apply. Read more>>

Anita Rosenberg

In the late 1980’s, something happened that changed my life, something right out of a Hollywood movie. In fact, it was Hollywood where I became a motion picture director – one of the few women directors then, and still a notoriously rare thing in the film industry. Read more>>

Kyle Joshua Trask

When I first decided to make the shift from the Pop Punk world I was in to chase after my Folk Rock roots, I knew I’d lose some people along the way and that I would have to start from scratch. Used to playing to rooms filled with 200-1000, I didn’t know what to expect when I decided to show my true identity and shift to the music I grew up with. Read more>>

Darius Bonner

When it comes to taking a risk and trusting the process , all I can say is GOD MADE A WAY !! Everything definitely takes time and being a creative person , I am always hard on my self and trying to critique everything to be perfect . Without God’s grace and guidance, I wouldn’t have been able to make any of this possible . Read more>>

Stephanie Dana George

The risk for me was starting he dance and fitness studio in the first place. My husband and I thought long and hard about taking this dream ad making it come true. We decided together to take the risk, take out a loan and put all of trust in starting a business. Read more>>

Tracy Milgram

At the age of 21 years old Tracy Milgram took a risk by doing genetic testing to find our her risk for Breast and Ovarian Cancer. She underwent 3 lumpectomies by the time I was 21years old. Tracy is a breast and ovarian cancer previvor and a BRCA mutation carrier. Read more>>

Kirkland Smith

In the Fall of 2007, I packed up my children and moved to France for the semester. I could not speak French, had never lived outside of South Carolina, and my husband, a member of the National Guard, had been sent to serve in Afghanistan for the year. Read more>>

Yoshika Greene

One of the most notable risks I have taken as a freelance designer and artist is just putting myself out there and reaching out to potential clients. I think there is a lot of fear and imposter syndrome that can come with entering a creative field. It involves taking the risk of someone disliking your work and being rejected. Read more>>

Enrique Villasenor

Last year around March I was working in the banking industry, I was in the fraud division so every interaction with the client needs to be pretty smooth because you are talking with people that has been robbed by someone, I was really good at it, Read more>>

Sarah Saari

Taking a risk to start my own cleaning business has been life changing. During the pandemic I quit my job and risked it all. I started cleaning full time by myself. I applied for my business license and then insurance. I joined professional cleaning groups online. Read more>>

Mar’Tez & Trayvia I Reed

Becoming full-time entrepreneurs, was one of our biggest risks we have ever taken. We both worked traditional jobs and enjoyed the certainty of a steady paycheck. We both struggled to find peace and joy while we worked our jobs for various reasons, but knew one day we would follow our dreams! Read more>>

Zach Myers

I graduated college with aspirations of breaking into the sports industry in some front office of a major league team. I took an internship in South Carolina during college that introduced me to my now wife, Allie. She was from Memphis, TN and me from York, PA. We got paired together to work a week long golf tournament and I’m pretty sure I told her on the first day of working together that I was going to marry her…. Read more>>

Victoria Laoudis

Being a content creator or influencer is a risk in itself. You are putting yourself on the internet for millions to view and judge upon. I had always looked up to influencers growing up, I was fascinated by the idea of people being able to make a job out of something they love. Read more>>

Leslie Marmol

I worked for a Fortune 500 company for over a decade. I am a creative person and felt that I needed to give myself the opportunity to go after what I desired for so many years: to own my own business that allows me to tap into my creative side. At first the idea was to do both but during my maternity leave I decided it was all or nothing. Read more>>

Stacie Weston

My business first started when Covid struck in 2020. I was working in the hospitality industry & my job shut down unexpectedly. Being stuck in the house during quarantine, I found an interest in nail art & acrylic nail enhancements. Money was running low and I spent the last couple of hundred dollars I had to my name, to invest in nail supplies to teach myself the craft. At the time, I knew nothing about nails. I spent many nights doing research & practicing my craft. Leaning new techniques & art styles. Read more>>

Stephanie Barbee

I never imagined I’d be the person who willingly volunteered to be vulnerable in front of a large group of people. Yet, that’s exactly what I found myself doing when I took my very first training in brainspotting in April 2021. And guess what? I have zero regrets. As a matter of fact, I’m grateful to myself for making the choice to do it because I felt called to and not wait to “feel good” about doing it. Let me start at the beginning. Read more>>

Brittany Webb

Becoming an entrepreneur is the biggest risk I have taken. Simply because it’s all about taking risks when first starting. You have to have faith and believing in yourself in order for you to make this big executive decision! I did not know where to start or what I was doing; until I started doing research. I am an advocate for the saying “finish what you’ve started”! Read more>>

Nick Gibbs

To become an artist in general takes a significant amount of risk. Being a hip hop artist in particular is an exceptionally tough market to succeed in due to the over saturation in that specific profession. As an artist you have to invest time, money, and creativity to progress with hopes of creating a profit. Read more>>

Gina Sachs

Haha, the whole thing has been a risk! tinyacts.co lived safely in my brain beginning sometime back in 2017. I’d used it to escape the demands of wife, motherhood and laundry. Then when 2020 happened and the mental escape was no longer strong enough, I realized it was time to take a big risk and bring all my ideas into reality. Read more>>

Kilo Kitty Buhrmaster

Risks are everywhere! We take them every single moment of every single day. It can be from getting into your car, flying on a plane, leaving a job. starting a new career path. Mine began with the creation of my LLC and the process of opening Sanctuary of Pole. I have been a part of the pole community since the first day I spun on a pole in 2011. Read more>>

Egg Party

Doing comedy is one of the riskiest jobs there is. Our lives are on the line every time we put a new video on TikTok, or step out on stage to do live improv. Some people even call us heroes for what we do, because that’s exactly what we are. And no, our lives aren’t literally on the line when we do comedy. And yeah, we aren’t heroes in any technical sense of the word. But anyway, here’s an example of a risk we took that paid off. Read more>>

Natalie Barroso

By 2020 I had been decorating cakes for 13 years. I had worked at a cupcake shop, a custom cake shop, a publix bakery and had gone to culinary school but had never considered making it into a career for one reason or another. It’s a common theme to make up reasons for not going after your dreams, you don’t have enough money, your market is over saturated, you’re not talented enough and the list goes on but 2020 changed all of that. Read more>>

Brandon & Hannah Wagster

In March we moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, a town we had never heard of until January. We had been planning for 2 years to open our own magic theatre, so we had sold our home, cashed out our 401Ks and were just waiting for the right opportunity in Myrtle Beach which is where we thought we would be the rest of our careers. At the beginning of the year we realized that town wouldn’t work and reached out to a friend who suggested we check out Virginia. Read more>>

Chelsea Green

Like many, I have spent much of my life abiding by the rules of perfectionism, which says it is safest to live, work, and relate to self and others within the narrow range of what dominant culture deems desirable. Perfectionism, as an ideology, told me how to belong; how to stay ‘safe’ in an unpredictable and uncontrollable world. Read more>>

tiffany willett

Hi! First off, thanks for the opportunity to share how remi + lola began! when this business venture began, I was actually a graphic designer + marketing designer. i am a designer at heart, but now, thanks to my pups and my determination to create strong, functional, affordable and adorable gear, I now consider myself a maker AND designer. custom work makes my heart happy! on to the story of how it all began… Read more>>

Taylor Wharton

When I started House f Baesics, I had saved up $10,000 of my own money to start it. If you’re a fellow business owner, you might be thinking this is chump change. But I had just turned 26, left a toxic job, and used every penny I had to start the brand. It felt like the scariest risk I had ever taken….until the actual launch. Read more>>

tacey Shapiro

I always struggled with living a life I felt I was “supposed” to live and live a life of passion and adventure. I decided to drop out of college in 2015 because I couldn’t imagine going into a 9-5 job that I had set up for an internship. Read more>>

Mouaad el Boumeshouli

I think the biggest risk I took was during the pandemic (COVID-19). My former company (taxi rental company), was on the edge to go bankrupt. This was off course because of the pandemic, cause no one was renting a taxi car as there were no tourist or customers. But the costs kept on going. Read more>>

Lindsey Bonadonna

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken is when I decided to blow up my life, and learn to love myself more deeply than I ever had before. Flashback to July 2019, it was about 2 am in the morning when I woke up with a start, sat bolt upright, and thought, this is NOT what life or marriage is supposed to feel like! There has GOT to be more, I KNOW there is more! Read more>>

Janetlys Rodriguez

I remember in 2020 I made the decision to move to Atlanta, Georgia by myself. It was a really big risk but I wanted to get my career started and not wait any longer. August 17th. I moved to Atlanta with 900 dollars to my name, and that was the down payment to move in to my apartment. Read more>>

Luis Perez

As artists and entrepreneurs we are constantly taking risks, whether it be the risk of failing or the risk of following your dreams. Sometimes, something as simple as making a post to put yourself out there can seem like a risk because of how judgmental people are. Read more>>

Areina Adeyemi

During the pandemic I decided to leave everything behind and begin my life as an expat. It was a big risk and yes it seemed scary at first but I proceeded despite my fears and that was the best decision I ever made. Living abroad has allowed my brand to grow and I was able to discover more about myself that I wouldn’t have discovered had I stayed in my comfort zone. Read more>>

Bianca Davila

The pandemic impacted everyone in different ways, both negative and positive, but for me I took advantage of it. In the spring of 2020, I was on my last semester of classes before I was supposed to walk on stage and receive my diploma, but then the pandemic hit. Our graduation was virtual and my goodbye’s to my peers were brief. Read more>>

Jamie Robinson

The industry I have been privileged to serve in is one of complexity. While many things are considered to be tried and true, the ability and adapt and evolve is crucial. Navigating the fine line between traditional and cutting edge can be a perilous and treacherous path to navigate. Read more>>