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.

Johanna Montenegro

Most of my career choices have been a risk despite already being in an already challenging circumstance. After graduating with my Master’s degree, the safest thing for me to have done at that time was to find an agency to work for, but instead, I chose to find a private practice and a mentor who would help me navigate the world of private practice owning. Read more>>

Dave Waxler

“A single conversation can change a life.”I was surprised to discover that the work of a therapist is so deeply involved with taking risks. Over the past twenty years I have had the privilege to meet thousands of individuals seeking support and insight. Read more>>

Koya Webb

As a wellness entrepreneur, it’s important to trust your intuition and honor seasons in your life. I have transitioned many times during my career and that’s helped me enjoy the journey because of my personality. Read more>>

Natalia Narsa

Leaving my stable eight-year sales job to pursue a full-time career as a private chef was a leap of faith. Despite lacking extensive chef experience beyond culinary school, I accepted an offer to be the exclusive chef for a family. Read more>>

Raven George

Last year I left my job working as a Greenhouse Specialist, Bee-keeper and Florist at a local farm in Trenton. I’d been working here for sometime and although I absolutely loved my job due to being in service of others, the job itself was mentally, emotionally and physically taxing to the point where it caused blockages in my artistry. Read more>>

Steve Spurgeon

My dream had always been to play professional baseball. In fact I attended the University of Nebrask in Lincoln on a baseball scholarship. A life playing music was the last thing on my mind. Read more>>

Felisha Lugo

One of the greatest personal risk I have ever taken is deciding to become a business owner. It changed my life forever. I always knew the traditional corporate world was not for me. The hours, the limitations don’t honor where I want my life to go. Once I had my first child a roaring fire lit up within me. Read more>>

Blake Harris

Wanting to build a multi-million dollar event venue in the middle of a global pandemic was a huge risk. 8 banks turned their noses up at me and said it would never work, “the world would never be the same”. I KNEW that we would go back to gathering, throwing parties, and hosting weddings with families and friends. Read more>>

Roopan Gill

Taking risks is intrinsic to personal and professional development. One particular memory exemplifies this principle: it was during my tenure with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a remote area of Yemen, amidst severe shortages of medical supplies and personnel compounded by the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more>>

Toni Thrash

Starting any business is a risk. I started Fortitude Life Coaching around 6 years ago. It’s now Toni Thrash Coaching which is a new transition in the past year. Read more>>

Maamoun Tobbo

In 2015, while entrenched in the monotonous grind of an architectural firm straddling Paris and Beirut, I found my life veering towards an all-too-familiar corporate drudgery. Read more>>

Corinne O’Flynn

Several years ago, I was in the midst of a gnarly burnout. I was writing fiction full-time, and doing what we called “rapid release” with one of my pen names – chasing the algorithms by launching a new novella every 30 days. Read more>>

Travis Trium Perfectum

Art is risk. There’s a certain liability when you allow an audience to look inside who you are and what you do, you immediately pay a price. I believe that price is always worth it though whether it be a negative or a positive one. To me, the final piece of the art puzzle is reaction. Read more>>

Athena Kennedy

I think every move in the music industry that I have taken has had some form of risk. And I’m proud of that, high risk high reward is so real.. from signing a management deal that actually ended up not working out, to playing shows I’m uncertain of and then they turn out really well, to working with new PR teams, to signing a sync deal that I recently signed. Read more>>

Sydney Hughes

I opened Here & Now in December 2019 selling only small gift items and jewelry in the front room of a Yoga Studio. After two INCREDIBLE months of business, I had already outgrown my space. Read more>>

Jared Jones

Back in September 2023 I moved to Atlanta, Georgia from the Midwest to chase my dreams and pursue my passions with music, content creation, and start businesses. Read more>>

Swanette Kuntze

The moment when I went from burnout to brilliance. I placed all my bets on one card. Left everyting behind. I took the biggest risk. I was brave and bold. I love to share my story and this special moment in my life. Read more>>

Michelle Reindal

Risks and pivots have always been a part of my career DNA. At 25, I worked at my first legitimate “adult” job—an office coordinator of sorts at the Washington State Bar Association. Read more>>

Dallas Livingston

The biggest risk I’ve taken was to start an on my own business being a mobile massage therapist. I was so unsure about making the decision because of my fear of failure, but I also knew that I had no longer wanted to work in someone else’s Spa. Read more>>

Keishla Almodovar

I was working full-time as a Medical Coder with a nice paycheck when I decided to take a risk. I quit Medical Coding to dedicate my time, 100%, as a headshot photographer. Read more>>

Olivia Reckert

I took a risk in 2020 by moving to Chattanooga, TN during the beginning of the pandemic. I was an artist living in New York City, and relocated because of a relationship and looking to escape the maddens that was NYC at the beginning of Covid. Read more>>

Melanie Mills

I’ve always been an entrepreneur and a risk taker. When I was 14 or 15 I was inspired by MTV music videos and I was obsessed with being a singer but couldn’t carry a tune so I thought, then I’ll be a director! Read more>>

Xiran Sun

Taking risk I just made a life-changing decision, after living in the state for nine years, I got a call from my mom saying:” You should come back for the spring festival and move back to China for now!” Read more>>

Chrystian Marte

For as far back as I can remember, my family has never been a “creative pursuit” type of family. My background is Latino, specifically Dominican. My father and my Mom’s parents were both born in the Dominican Republic, while my Mom was born here, although raised within a Hispanic family and the traditions that come with them. Read more>>

Wes Mergard

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken involved setting my 13 year career in business and finance aside to pursue a business idea centered around something I’m really passionate about, which is traveling. Read more>>

LOE Badgett

I’ve learned over the last few years life is short. We experience many great victories and undesirable losses. During this journey I have personally found out there is no better victory than betting on yourself and winning. Read more>>

Allison Clarke

I needed a reason to pick up my camera again. In 2019I had spent the better part of a decade waiting tables despite having a BFA in Photography in my back pocket. I’d had a few false starts with putting my degree to use, but ultimately I wasn’t ready to take the plunge and I was making pretty good money serving. Read more>>

Mary Belle

For most of my young adult and adult life I’ve been the person who’s “good” at a lot of things but never quite knew *the* thing I was meant for. Read more>>

Marina Romashina

I was born in a small town in Siberia called Yugorsk. My family has never traveled abroad and I never thought it was even possible. Since childhood, I loved being photographed, I remember when my mother went to work, my grandmother took the camera and I gladly ran to my mother’s closet to choose outfits. Read more>>

Terry Golden

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was moving to ATL Georgia. I moved from chicago at 21 years old without the proper finances, without a place to stay, and without family. Read more>>

Devon Noehring

At the time, the biggest risk I’ve taken according to everyone around me – which included parents, friends, professors and family, was to pursue a life path as an entrepreneur instead of finding a job while I was coming out of college. Read more>>

Melanie Fonseca

I found myself at a crossroads in my career. I was working as an Administrative Assistant for a Environmental Consultant firm. While the paycheck was steady, I was feeling uninspired with no possibly for growth in the company. Read more>>

Matt Clark

Being in the entertainment industry can be a bit scary. But you must be willing to take risks. If you don’t believe in yourself enough to go after your dreams then you don’t stand a chance. Read more>>

Ken Mori

A couple years ago, I quit my corporate design job of many years, with no new job in place, to explore my many creative endeavors and dreams. I didn’t have one singular goal as a creative, but rather a scatterbrain list of many things that interested me. Read more>>

Eryn Donnalley

In early 2023, there was a call for artists in the southeastern U.S. for a public art competition called Uproar. I had started my woodworking and mosaic creations only 3 months earlier and had completed my first piece, the Phoenix, titled Choose To Rise. Read more>>

Lazhane Hightower

Life entails embracing risks! I’ve taken bold steps, reaching out to influencers and celebrities, offering my hairstyling services for free in exchange for exposure. Read more>>

Cherie Monlezun

“On belay!” “Belay on.” “Climbing!” “Climb on.” Have YOU ever said these words? They are the communication between a climber and the person holding the other end of their rope. Read more>>

Jonarra Swanson

Entrepreneurship, on its own, is a lonely journey. Add being a Black woman to it and the road becomes even tougher. I have been forced to break barriers, challenge stereotypes, and apply my own perspective and ideas in order to pave my own path. Read more>>

Kathy Sebuck

For more than 25 years I worked in corporate tech sales and marketing leadership roles for startups and Fortune 500 enterprise software companies in the public, private, and nonprofit sector like Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, SAP, and Amazon Web Services. Read more>>

Ioana Marcus

Back in 2011 I was working on and finishing up my dissertation defense. Most of my clinical work had been focused on eating disorders, trauma and working with refugees. Read more>>

Phil Hendrix

It was March 2020, and as the pandemic was about to turn the world upside down, I was about to make the riskiest decision I had ever made. I had just finished a 2-year term as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Thailand, and I’d been offered a scholarship to my dream graduate program, International Affairs with a focus on Conflict Resolution. Read more>>

Lorena Placencia

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot This impactful quote became my guiding force as I stood at the edge of a major life shift seven years ago. Read more>>

Natalie Candela

I have taken many risks in my life, but two are specifically relevant to my current work. The first one was deciding to change the whole direction of my career from an established job in the field of education to being self-employed in the field of health and wellness. Read more>>

Caryn Brooks

Being alive means taking risks; staying alive means winning the bet you just made with the world when you jumped in and said, “I got this!” When creating change, risk is the thing, right? Read more>>

Tilla Duula

One the biggest risks I took was quitting my job to get my CDL. I was having my first child so I was scared because I was working at a T-Shirt printing shop and I wasn’t making a lot of money, so I took a leap. Read more>>

Adrianna Powell

In May of 2023, I walked away from a career I loved and had built for 13 years: education. I had no idea what I was going to do next in my career, and it was scary. Read more>>

Jaye Watts

It’s really funny that I never really thought of being a risk-taker, as a defining characteristic until it became the central most fulfilling part of my life. I actually received an award, called the “risk taker of the year” award, and it meant a lot to me because of the lives, my risks had affected. Read more>>

Alexis Varady

When graduating from chiropractic school, a lot of graduates choose to take a job working at an existing clinic rather than attempting to open their own. Read more>>

Sergio Farfán

Taking risks is super important for artists, especially when it comes to making big decisions- like leaving a regular job to become a full-time artist. Read more>>

Scott Gross

I was one of the partners and executives of a very large DFW based, electrical Design/build construction firm. I was with the company from the very early start and over 20 years helped grow it to a $200+ million/year company with over 1,000 employees. Read more>>

Britney Campbell

I moved from my hometown at 39. It was 2019 and I had been feeling stuck and unfulfilled for a while. Overall my career was going well, I had a group of amazing friends, and by all accounts things couldn’t be better, yet deep down I felt there was more out there for me without knowing exactly what that meant. Read more>>

Keith Neltner

My creative career spans 25 years in the design/advertising/art industry. Early on as I was learning my craft I worked with some of the best peers, creatives, and friends in the Cincinnati region and across the country. Read more>>

KeJuana Ford

At the age of 19, I found myself in Dayton, Ohio, my hometown, filled with youthful and ambitious dreams. Juggling dental assistant school during the day and delivering meals at the hospital, a burning desire for more lingered within me. Read more>>