Embracing risk is one of the most powerful things anyone can do to level up and maximize the probability of reaching your full potential. Below, you’ll find risk-takers across industries sharing their stories of how they began to embrace risk.
Emmalee Silva
I like to play it safe and have control. I would actually consider myself the exact opposite of a risk taker! But when a little dream was placed on my heart, I knew I’d have to take a big risk. It is so easy to think of a million reasons why you shouldn’t… but all it takes is one reason to say yes! Read More>>
Aubrey Yee
Life is for living, Love is for giving, Have you heard?’ I found this handwritten note, scribbled in my dad’s signature, all-caps style, resting on his nightstand He must have read it every day while he was sick. He had just died of cancer after a swift and valiant decline. He was 58. I was 20. Read More>>
Shuntavia Gray-Baines
When I think about how I developed the ability to take risks, I often think about when Covid hit back in 2020. Covid created a lot of uncertainties but it also created opportunities for people to take risk and to work on that idea or that goal that you’ve been pondering on. Read More>>
Alexandra Costa
I started realising that, overthinking was what was causing me to doubt myself. When you decide you want to do something, if you are willing to actually go through with one idea, nothing matters. The questions how, when and why will be answered during the journey. So, to develop my ability to take risks, I started trusting my instincts and wishes. Read More>>
Bryan Douredjian
For me, taking risks didn’t come from being bold. It came from realizing that staying comfortable wasn’t helping me grow. I played things safe for a while, and all it really did was keep me in the same place. Every time I ignored what I genuinely wanted, life felt tighter, like I was shrinking instead of moving forward. Read More>>
Kelsey Krasnov
I don’t think the ability to take risks is something you’re born with I think it’s something you build on. For me, that ability came from getting tired of waiting for permission and the perfect work conditions. I have spent my time doing the 9-5 grind being the ‘good worker,’ in essence helping other people build their businesses by being a part of the machine. Read More>>
Cassidy Maestas
The ability to take risks is not merely about doing something just to say you’ve done it. It’s about understanding the meaning of the risk. When I was younger, I would take risks simply for the sake of the accomplishment. I enjoyed the feeling of being admired for doing what others wouldn’t, were scared of, or knew wasn’t a risk worth taking. Read More>>
Shirley Giler Noto
My ability to take risks comes from instinct, passion, and a belief that failure is not an option when something is meant to exist. When I believe in something, I give it everything I have. That is how the Bank Art Gallery began. Read More>>
Christine Conti
People ask me all the time how I became someone who takes risks like it’s a built-in reflex. The truth? I didn’t wake up one morning fearless. My courage came from living through enough plot twists to realize that the ground only feels steady when you learn to stand on your own two feet—no matter what’s shaking beneath you. Read More>>
Margot Lane
I developed my ability to take risks by changing my perspective and approaching from a grounded, intentional mindset rather than assuming that big leaps automatically lead to big rewards. For me, it started with learning how to assess situations thoroughly—understanding not only what I might learn, but also what I needed to protect. Read More>>
Nicole Lopez
How I Became a Risk-Taker: The Strength My Mother Saw Before I Did People often ask me how I developed my ability to take risks—how I leap when others hesitate, how I keep moving forward even when things don’t go as planned. The truth is, I wasn’t born fearless. Read More>>
Agnes Nsor
My ability to take risk was built through necessity and conviction. Moving to the United States as an international student, away from anything I knew was a risk. Transitioning from law to international business was a risk- It felt like my years of experience as an attorney wouldn’t count. Traveling internationally competing in national competitions without knowing the outcome was a risk. Read More>>
Patrick Nesbitt
Failure is one of the biggest teachers/ Lessons the dissatisfaction and unwanted feeling you experience will cause you, to improve your skills which is where taking risk comes into play. In Todays generation we would classify failures as taking an “L” and if your willing to take a few L’s just to reach your goal that’s what taking a risk is in my book. Read More>>
McKenna Burns
I used to never take risks. I enjoyed the comfort of my small hometown bubble in Illinois, where no one stepped into the unknown. Everyone wore the same clothes, had the same hairstyles, listened to the same music, went to the same colleges, and so on. It was simple. The only goal was to fit in and be liked. Read More>>
Javier Bardauil
When I look back, I realize I didn’t learn to take risks in a single moment, it was something that grew out of necessity, curiosity, and a bit of stubbornness. Before I ever stepped into a professional kitchen, I had a motorcycle accident that changed the trajectory of my life. Everything stopped. Read More>>
Deneen L. Garrett
My relationship with risk grew out of how I was raised. While there wasn’t an explicit focus on taking risks, there was a deep sense of freedom — the belief that we could do whatever we wanted. That support gave me a foundation of possibility, and over time, that foundation evolved into the courage to stretch myself in new ways. Read More>>
