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.

Marquavis` Fant

The biggest risk I’ve taken was leaving my Job as an Business Banker at Wells Fargo to pursue my dreams as a Private Chef. I left my job in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, it was exciting and scary at the same time. Read more>>

Cynthia Ortega

Biggest risk I have ever taken was moving away from my hometown on my own in my early twenties. I grew up in a 60,000 population city known as Porterville just up north from Los Angeles in the San Joaquin Valley. Read more>>

Leilani Rosine

I think the environment and work of what any actor does is always full of risk. One of the biggest risks I took was when I decided to focus more on film, coming from a background in theater. Read more>>

Linda Waterborg

I’ve had to take risks at a few key points in my career – moving across the country for a job, transitioning to marketing at a small agency in Kansas City, and most recently, starting my freelance marketing business. Read more>>

Jess Trachsel

Creating my personal brand was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. When I started my business at 24, I was a brand new brand and website designer and learning as I went. Read more>>

Bakari Jakson

We’ve taken an enormous risk to develop and invest in Ozone. Seeing as how this is not just a label, but in fact an entire shift in culture, we know this goal of ours is no easy feat. Read more>>

Sean Bernhardt

I think the biggest risk i have taken in my life so far would be diving into making artwork full-time and dedicating all my energy into my work. I enjoy drawing, collaging, designing t-shirts and working on commissions for people on a daily basis. Its hard for me to stop working on art some days. Read more>>

Kristine Fisher

My earlier career with global design leader Herman Miller was foundational from both a design perspective and confidence perspective. Read more>>

Jeanette Perez

Raised as an old school perfectionist for my entire life, I had an extremely hard time not linking my art to my own value. I think it’s something a lot of creative types do. Read more>>

Wen Zhang

Starting a business is a risk. As for any business owners/entrepreneurs, pivoting is the name of the game. No one can guarantee 100% success before reaching product-market fit. Read more>>

Berri Kramer

After working with Better Homes and Gardens for 20 years, it was time to change course. In my mid 40’s I decided to start a small Art College in Southern Maine (some say I must have been a little out of my mind.) Read more>>

Liz McVoy

The biggest risk I’ve taken was believing I could turn my side-gig into a full-time business… while pregnant with baby #2 during a pandemic. Here’s the full story: Read more>>

Mio Ishikawa

The biggest life changing moment is when I decided to audition for The Juilliard School and come to the US to study dance. I was 20 years old in my second year of college for economics in Japan. Read more>>

Lucy Maeve

It was a Thursday back in February 2018. The rain hadn’t stopped for months and London was right in the depths of what felt like the longest winter we’d ever had. Read more>>

Darvishi

I always knew I was going to become a singer. I just didn’t know when. When I was younger, writing felt like therapy. Anytime I felt sad, I’d pick out a pretty journal and would write down all my feelings until I felt better. Read more>>

Ariana Miri

After dedicating 11 years to acting under the name Ariana Azoulai, I recently made the decision to pursue music professionally under the name Ariana Miri. Read more>>

Lisa Broberg

My husband and I were homeowners in the Bay Area, where we were born and raised, now raising our own family together. We were blessed – we had well-paying jobs, friends and family nearby, a beautiful home, and we lived in Northern California where there were endless things to do, beautiful places to see – we had a great life! Read more>>

Shannon Martinez

Until recently, we operated as The Olive and Poppy, a distinguished floral design studio primarily serving the social side of the event industry, particularly weddings. Read more>>

Lauren Montgomery

I take a lot of risks when it comes to my creative journey. After working in theatre as a costume designer and wardrobe supervisor for years, I was starting to feel unfulfilled by projects that were available. Read more>>

Maya Doss

In January 2023, I left an unhealthy relationship, quit my job, and decided to focus on pursuing my dreams of “being an artist”. For me, this meant making art full-time. Read more>>

Jordan Cunningham

In 2022 I packed my life into a U-Haul and moved from North Carolina to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania to open a tattoo, leather and fine art studio with my husband, John. Read more>>

Jill Jose

I took a risk putting all my savings into my current business. Rather than selling the business after Covid, I continued to put effort and worked hard to build my brand and support my team so they could have stability and job security. Read more>>

Trina C

In the beginning my passion for cooking was just a hustle to make extra cash. I liked cooking and people liked to eat. I started selling food out of my mom and friend’s houses that’s where my dream ignited. Read more>>

Dee Jeffries

I knew I wanted to own a business before I knew I wanted to be a massage therapist. I had been searching for a skill I could leverage into self-employment. I didn’t expect to fall in love with massage the way I did. Read more>>

Cortni Armstrong

I have lived in an RV for almost 10 years. One year into my journey I said “I love this lifestyle but I cannot stand these interiors”. I knew there had to be cute RVs out there somewhere. Read more>>

Courtney Buchanan

Taking a leap of faith in September 2020, amidst a global pandemic and with no prior experience in the fashion industry, I decided to share my artwork with the world through the creation of CB Grey. Read more>>

Ashley Gordon

Embarking on the journey of becoming a teen hairstylist entrepreneur has been a world of excitement, uncertainty, and creativity all at once. As a teenager, I found myself drawn to the artistry of hairstyling, and I knew I wanted to turn my passion into a business venture. Read more>>

Elyse Terry

The journey for me to pursue creative entrepreneurship has involved taking many risks, the biggest of which happened only 9 months ago. Read more>>

Marcus Anderson

The best thing that I could say about risk taking is do it scared. No matter what the feeling is of wanting to pursue a career or goal. The biggest and most important step is the first one. Read more>>

Anna Ganina and Sasha Lucenko

Anna answer – I wasn’t always one to take risks when it came to my career, although my passion for art was clear from an early age. Opting for a safer route, I pursued a degree in architecture. Read more>>

Peter Takla

Filmmaking is Not An Easy thing to do, But Storytelling Passion is what is driving me to dig deeper into the Industry. Read more>>

Rae Cook

Because I have only worked in-house for brands, I was quite nervous about taking the NCIDQ (National Council for Interior Design Qualification) but I knew that if I wanted to learn, grow, and be respected in our industry I had to take it. Read more>>

LaKisha Tolbert

When you hear the word risk, feelings of hesitancy, worry, and fear my dance throughout your mind while making your heart flutter. I have been looking risk in the eye long as I could remember. Read more>>

Christopher Cinquemani

Risk either gives us motivation or arrests us all. As someone who has battled severe medical afflictions/illness his whole life…there are always risks in what I do. Read more>>

Lauren Rodych-Eberle

What I’ve learned is that sometimes when you have to pivot, the universe sends you in the direction you were meant to go. I’ve spent most of my adult years as a private music teacher being my primary job, and while I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurial journeys and had many side gigs, I would have never expected that my journey and the direction of my career would go in the way it has. Read more>>

Leslie M Hardy

Consistent income. A good government job. Guaranteed salary increase, albeit it minimal. Paid time off. 401K and retirement benefits. All of those descriptors were the making of stability and a solid foundation to build and raise a family based on most people’s standards, and it was. Read more>>

Philip Branch

The biggest risk I have ever taken in life was betting on myself. I chose to stop working for other entities, or as some call a “9-5”, and build a niche for myself. Read more>>

Gina Onori

As an entrepreneur, it’s important to be a risk taker. If you never take risks, you’ll never succeed. For example, I was laid off of my previous job and felt extremely scared and anxious on what to do next. Read more>>

Juliana Naufel

As soon as I graduated in 2018 I started working as a full-time art teacher, a path that I thought it would be a more reliable one to take – I’ve always heard that you were either an art teacher or you were born rich to work with the Arts – don’t get me wrong, I come from a family of educators and it was still something that I felt passionate about. Read more>>