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.

Laura Berendsen Hughes

I don’t think I realized that I was taking risks when I would choose artistic pursuits. I think with 4 children to raise my parents just didn’t have the ability to completely focus on any one child long enough to enforce any particular path upon them. So when I went to college my father had given up trying to direct my particular career path and instead just encouraged me to go to the best school I could get into. Read more>>

Ashton Abbott

I took risk when I moved to Austin, Texas without knowing anyone or anything about Texas. I took a risk to move 15 hours away from my family, friends, and everything I knew about life to be able to find myself and found out my purpose for my life. I started and are continuing to grow my online coaching business through social media and the people I have met throughout college and my journey moving across multiple states. Read more>>

Jen Fontanilla

At the last corporate job I had in 2001 working for a Fortune 500 publishing company, I felt frustrated and knew that my skills weren’t being leveraged and I began the hunt for something better. A phone call from a former boss from a small mom and pop print shop came through. “Hey Jen! We were just thinking about you. What if you came back and we offered you one third of the partnership?” Of course that sounded intriguing and being in my early 20s it definitely was appealing. I put in my two-week notice. Read more>>

kendra robertson

My biggest risk was leaving a salary position without the financial backing to truly start my own business. It was very stressful to live closing to closing in the beginning, but my life experience and work ethic helped me to double my business each year and I was finally able to truly market myself and what I can offer. It has been almost four years since I have made this transition, and the satisfaction of working for myself, with the backing of a trusted company, Keller Williams Realty, has filled me with gratitude for living a life I have designed. Read more>>

Mimi Francis

For years, I wrote fan fiction for years, first for the TV show Supernatural, then for Marvel movies. I loved writing it and I grew to be relatively popular on Tumblr and Archive of Our Own. I also wrote original fiction, which I enjoyed, and I considered self-publishing. But, being a wife, a mother, and working a full-time job kept me from devoting myself to all that came with self-publishing. There was also the pesky problem of not believing in myself enough to take that step. I did use Patreon for a while, along with some social media channels. I thought if I could build a following, eventually I could sell some books. Read more>>

Tamika Trotter

The biggest risk ive taken is this business. I wasnt making much doing hair at first. So I tired getting a job. I was working at sams , I tired working at Fedex , I worked in a call center , I tried working at Quik Trip but nothing was more satisfying and nothing brought in more money than me doing hair . I had a family death that caused me to quit my last job and after that I just thought to myself do what you know you can do . Read more>>

Angie Dee

Our Beginnings: Audience of One Productions began with the vision of having Broadway quality theatre available in Wilson County. I was teaching a drama class at Heritage Christian Academy. I gave an assignment to my students to give three insights into a dream they had. #1 What was the dream (it could be anything…even if it was out of reach)
#2 What was an obtainable version of that dream? Read more>>

Kina Sadler

I had been an employee from the time I was 15 to the time I was 40 years old. Although I have been in this industry since 2010 I always had a full-time job working for other people and did my skin care and make up work outside of those jobs. It has always been my dream to work for myself. When I was headed to maternity leave with my youngest daughter, Read more>>

Kat Hernandez

Starting my brand was the risk. It is based on the idea of no longer hiding or limiting ones self, to any negative beliefs of failure. My name is Kat and I came “outta the bag” when I decided against questioning my gifts and creating images of failure in my head . College taught me a lot and I am very grateful for my experiences there. Once I graduated, I came home to NYC and fell right back into the rat race. Read more>>

Renée Marjolein

Earlier this year a painter acquaintance and I tentatively reached out to each other about an opportunity to exhibit at a new artist run gallery space. There were layers of risk. We’d met through a course but didn’t know each other that well, our work isn’t a natural pairing, the space is fairly new and neither of us had exhibited like this before, let alone hung work or run a gallery space. Read more>>

Wolly

Everyday is a risk I think. When I was young, I grew up in an environment where things happen daily. People loose their lives, racism, limited options, and at times despair. We still stepped outside, we still found reason, we still took a chance on the idea of surviving and just growth in life. So When I decided I wanted to follow a path in the world of art and creativity, Read more>>

Alexandra Falticeni

The risk that I have taken was taking the plunge to follow my passion for healing and walk in complete faith that this was my soul’s divine purpose. I had trauma as a child and I fell in tune with energy healing when I first went to seek therapy for myself. My sister advocated for me to face my trauma so I could finally let all of the old pain and buried emotions to finally come out. She lived in the UK at the time so I went to see her therapist. Read more>>

Markita Brown

Starting my business was one of the biggest risks I had ever taken in my entire life. It began as a hobby. I was on a soul-searching journey to finding myself, finding what I was good at, finding an avenue to express myself and most of all to aid in my self care. After time of making soap I started to give it away to have people try it out and let me know their thoughts. Read more>>

Arielle Schmidt

Here’s a story to share about how I said yes to quitting my job as a corrections officer and venturing out to be a business owner, which was one of the scariest and riskiest things I think I will ever do in this life. Back in 2017, while I had been a corrections officer full-time for just under 4 years, I had the opportunity to take a month off and travel to India to take a 200-hour yoga and Thai Yoga Massage training. The first risk of this opportunity was saying yes to going, emptying my savings account, and paying for the trip before I even knew if I could get the time off. Read more>>

Bren Holmes

I was born and raised In Dublin, Ireland and played in a few short lived bands while living there. It had always been a dream of mine to go to the states and become a full time musician…so in the last 80’s I decided to make a go of it. So I quit my job, said goodbye to all of my family and got ready to leave the only home I had ever known…Off I went to meet some friends here in LA who got there a lil’ before me. Read more>>

Angel Even

Imagine yourself preparing to go white water rafting. As you are putting on your life vest, you are second guessing your decision every time you fasten a buckle. You keep going, because you’ve built up this energy around what you will be able to accomplish by just taking that step on that raft. Even though you can see all of the rapids clearly, you are still entering the waters blind. Read more>>

Dr. Lanecha Conner

Listen, you can live the life you want, the life you’ve always dreamed of! In order to be able to live that live you’ve got to start taking positive, strategic risks. I used to avoid risks at all costs because I was afraid of failure and the unknown. I used to always “play it safe” or remained in my “comfort zone”. But staying comfortable and avoiding risks was not working for me and, trust me, it won’t work for you! Read more>>

Rose Cofield

Creating abstract art is in itself risky. You are making something out of nothing. The risk comes in when you get out of your comfort zone and try something which is new to you. Initially I was a sculptor but when an injury forced me to give up my work in 3D, I took the plunge into 2D, abstract painting. using mixed media. I worked hard, learning as much as I could about painting using mixed media. I’m still learning! Read more>>

Mya Rivera

I think I’ve always taken risks in my life. I always wanted to push the boundaries of who I am and I I am becoming. Taking a risk and following my intuition has always led me to different places, around different people, and created so may different experiences so that I could start to shape and learn about who I am and what I like to do. I moved around a lot from 15 years old because I wanted to, not because I had to, but I was drawn to. Read more>>

Chloe Dimond

When I opened my shop when I was 24 years old, with no business experience and I had only worked in a barbershop for two years prior to that. When I started my shop I remember I had to start working immediately. I had spent all my money putting the shop together with no savings to fall on, so it was really one of those do or die moments where I could only succeed or fail. Read more>>

Natalie Cook

I’ve taken a lot of risks in my life that have worked out very well including moving to South Korea to teach English first thing after college, marrying my husband 6 months after we met, having my 1st child in the middle of grad school while working a full-time job. To many, I appear 100% fearless when it comes to risk (not always the case- sometimes I’m just not going to change the laundry at night because there could be spider). Read more>>

Nathan Bingle

I was a chef for 15 years but started feeling the pull to explore another career so I decided to pursue photography. So at age 40, right before the pandemic and right after our second child was born, I took a leap and never looked back. I needed to have more time with my children and I needed another outlet for creativity. I needed a new challenge. I’m so glad that I stepped out. This is my 3rd year of full-time photography and 2 of those years are 6 figure years. Read more>>

Karim Bryant

There’s no greater reward than taking a risk on self… and winning. With $552.00 in the bank, the courtesy of a local property owner, 2 hopes and a million dreams, In 2014 I created Lil Greenhouse Grill, an 8 table soul infused restaurant in the heart of Historic Overtown, located in Downtown Miami. We have survived a possible eviction, Covid, the Pandemic, and an amazing visit from Oprah Winfrey. 7 years later we are thriving and our brand is stronger than ever. Read more>>

Damon Jones

The majority of people in society never get to live out a dream of theirs because they are afraid to take risks. You have to believe in yourself and your God given abilities no matter what. During the height of the pandemic I had lost my job and had no idea what I would do at that point. I had been smoking cigars for a few years and learning about the tobacco industry with an interest of participating in it someday. In 2020 I was introduced to Alex Spencer (owner of Alex Spencer Reserve). Read more>>

Ryan Graves

With every song I wrote, record, and release to the world, is a risk itself. I have to risk putting all my energy, emotions, time, heart, and soul into each project and hope that people love what I have done and worked so hard for. Being an independent artist, you risk money a lot of the time. You have to research and find a team that will help you get all this achieved. Investments are very risky in the music industry. Read more>>

Franchesca Bethel

“The past is your lesson, the present is your gift, the future is your motivation.” – Zig Ziglar I view mental health as one of the most important things in life, along with family. It was just a year and a half ago that I thought I was in a great place due to the success in my career, continuation of school, and a lifestyle change after moving to Florida. Read more>>

Christiane Palpant

During a twenty-five-year period, I traveled to all fifty states in the US many times over due to my career in financial services. The frenetic pace was mesmerizing, and I never tired of the planes, trains, and automobiles. One fateful evening during a business trip to Portland, Maine, I started having serious chest pains while at a client dinner. This shocked me because I was proud of natural lifestyle and had been preparing to ski a cross-country marathon. How could I be having chest pains? Read more>>

Kianna Studstill

My philosophy is that life itself is a risk. There’s always some decision that you have to make that can change the course of your life. One risk for me was starting my podcast and putting myself out their more on social media. I was never one for putting my thoughts and opinions out there because there are so many voices and who would want to hear me? Getting over my inner critic was a huge deal for me. It reminded me how every voice, every story matters. Read more>>

Ann Butler

Surviving Covid as a business owner was a huge risk – the uncertainty from day to day was unnerving and was approached on bended knee often. As a children’s cooking school owner, I had no idea when we would see children again with no school on the horizon. Fortunately, real estate was still a good deal and as fate had it, the landlord was offering me a can’t say no deal right next door to expand the commissary space we were already providing. Read more>>

Kelly Ulstad

It was January 2021 and I had been an Aesthetician for nearly 5 years. I had a stable job with a great employer, and full client books at a wonderful skincare studio in the Minneapolis, MN area. I was making a difference  people's lives through their skin and had created incredible relationships with my clients throughout my years there. In addition to everything, I was also able to consistently provide the amount of income necessary for my family. My husband and I had relocated 1.5 years ago in 2019, Read more>>

Lalea Raymond

I remember at the beginning of the year I wanted to go to Essence Fest. I was not sure how I would make it there but I took the risk! I invested in my trip, bought the hotel and airfare before I even knew I had access. A month later applied for a media pass and got approved! I was determined to go so I prepared myself with gear and logging. I flew down to New Orleans and found out I didn’t have access to the parts of the event I wanted to capture… Read more>>

Keagan Stromberg

March 14, 2022. Probably one of the biggest risks I’ve taken. I had just quit my job at a coffee shop to pursue music full time. I didn’t know what that meant or how it was going to workout. But, I figured if I was going to be broke, why not do what I love instead of working for someone else who wasn’t paying me a lot. So, I decided I would do Uber Eats in the evening and work on music the rest of the time. Read more>>

Evee Erb

Art-making is all about taking risks. Whether you are just beginning your artistic path or diving in toward a career as a full time professional artist, risk is a natural part of living a creative life. Being an artist opens you up to the possibility of mistakes, failures, rejection, and struggle just as much as it allows you an opportunity for stability, success, and meaning in your work. Read more>>

Rachel Katz

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was fully committing to my business when I had no idea where the money to pay my bills would come from. For a long time, I was part-time in my business and always had side jobs in order to pay my bills. One day I realized I was doing this out of fear- fear that my business would fail, fear that I wasn’t good enough, fear that I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. One day I finally decided to jump fully into my business and my purpose and I haven’t looked back since! It’s been a wild ride but it’s the best decision I ever made. Read more>>

Allison Bannister

It was summer of 2016 and I was at a gathering with current and former colleagues at my former boss’ house. I was chatting with someone who recently left the company where I was still working and he was strongly encouraging to pursue freelance writing. And I kept objecting, telling him it wasn’t for me, that I couldn’t handle the discipline, that I didn’t have any potential clients, that I just never saw myself that way. Read more>>

Stacey Bessard

It was after a pretty heated discussion with family members that I decided to take the biggest risk of my life. Well the second biggest risk of my life. I had never moved without my family, but I wanted to experience something different and felt that I needed to do it now. I had been working at an Acute Psychiatric Hospital for about a little over 4 years and it was draining to say the least. It was my first job out of grad school and the only job at the time that I felt I could do. Read more>>

Jose Galindo

There have been a few risks I have taken in life from going to school to moving from Illinois to Missouri to Texas, but the biggest risk I’ve taken I think would have to investing in myself in the past year and a half. Last year I was nearly 300 pounds. I started my weight loss journey at 285 lbs and now I was gotten down to 210 lbs while continuing towards my overall goal of continuing to lost weight while being able to teach and guide others towards their own goals of weight loss. Read more>>

Sonja Lilljeberg

I lived in Chicago for 16 years post college. I had a great life, I have amazing friends that are still to this day my closest of people. I enjoyed the city and the life it afforded me but it was not enough. I find challenge to be part of my best company and I need some in my life to encourage passion. I left my good life in Chicago and moved to NYC for work. It was probably one of the boldest of moves on my part, biggest city, biggest energy, very few friends and no idea what I was getting myself into. Read more>>

Cori Kline

Starting a business has been my biggest risk. I LOVE making soap and the creative and mathematical parts of the brain that get exercised, but the business part is TOUGH for a non- business minded person. Committing to that has been the hard for me. Owning a business isn’t just the fun stuff, in fact, the fun is probably the smallest part. Thinking about the bureaucratic parts of a company are enough to send me back to my bed .  Read more>>

Margo Dill

If you ask 100 creative people if it’s a risk to share their work, you will most likely receive 100 nods. Sharing any creative piece–whether it’s written, painted, photographed, or designed–is a risk because what people like is so subjective. You can see that on reviews of anything–some people love it, and some people REALLY hate it. So as a writer, it has always been a risk for me to share my writing. But a much bigger risk was when I decided to publish other writers and start my own publishing company. Read more>>

Jazzy Olivo

Talking about risks I’d say, I’ve risked it all from the moment at 3 yrs old I stood up in-front of my school and sang and performed the school play, I was the presenter of my elementary class as well. So ive always felt that there were parts of myself I needed to risk to make it to the next step in terms of my artistry, always searching for an outlet. I threw leap of faith and moved to another country. I became a contestant on a reality singing competition filmed from Mexico City to be broadcasted internationally. Read more>>

Shamariah Pratt

When I first started my small business, my offerings looked a bit different than they do now. The items I made were “safer”, and appealed to a much broader audience. However, as time went on, I realized that what I really wanted to sell were products that spoke to who I was as a person and the beliefs I held. The phrase that would eventually become our logo – “Your values matter. Live them loudly. Wear them proudly.” Read more>>

Seven The Mogul

one of the risks that I took was pursuing a soccer career. leaving college with 3 or 2 semesters left, not finishing school as the years went by I was failing behind and having to learn how to compete with the lack of the education accolade pursued soccer First-generation Americans on both sides gaining the resources was difficult but I continued to fight for what I wanted played in England and was recognized as a professional player the risk was figuring out how to manage money, food, and shelter had to learn different terms and language differences played for Yorkshire FC for a year used that experience to understand teamwork, business, and being adaptable trying to bring positivity to my community leadership skills developed from soccer always wanted to be a player as a child and wanted to be a positive leader whatever you put your mind to is possible Read more>>

Casey Samsel

The Fit Femme Project was once just a young teenage girl who couldn’t see or understand her worth and placed all of her value on her body and how she looked. The only person she treated badly was herself. She spoke and acted shallow in times of desperation and need for self-love. She isolated herself from becoming someone new or better because she convinced herself she didn’t deserve it. Read more>>

Twnkii Garcia

In the graffiti culture every day is a risk, weather your putting up some tags where society deems illegal or putting up artwork on a wall or as a mural exposed to the public for critique. Krewline was developed out of that idea as a small business and from that culture by my brother and I around 2017. We prototyped an aerosol adapter called Krewline 210 Cap, the graffiti community refers to as a stencil cap or adapter. Read more>>

Ronald Young

After retiring from teaching I decided to return to school and earn my MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Searching for a new visual language whereby the materials would create the narrative, I started collecting found objects from around the city: ropes and chains, burnt wood, rusty metal, ole broken tools, decayed architectural features, and lots of bricks and nails. Read more>>

Melissa Goleash

In 2017, I volunteered to compete for my unit’s Army Best Warrior Competition. At the time, it was an excuse to miss drill and fulfill that competitive edge that I had been missing since my last year playing college basketball in 2013. At the Battalion and Brigade level competitions I was the only female competitor, which I won and advanced to State. Read more>>

Tracey Mertens
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By nature I am not a risk taker and have lived my life very conservatively. Looking back I wish I would have taken more risks and not been afraid to fail. The biggest risk I have taken is the opening of my storefront boutique during Covid of all times. What made me decide to be such a risk taker? My age! I have always wanted to own my own boutique and after being in direct sales and owning an online boutique for over 25 years my direct sales experience actually gave me the confidence to take the leap of faith. Read more>>