We asked some brilliant folks from the community to talk to us about how they think about risk and the role risk has played in their lives and careers.

Nina Liu | Photographer and Visual Artist

What I’ve realized is that all of my best work had been created by pushing myself to take risks. Fear has always been known to be a deadly obstacle for any creative; the fear of failing, fear of creating something that doesn’t satisfy someone who strives for “perfection”— these are all things I’ve struggled with in art making. One of my most recent pieces that I created for my BFA show in November 2021, was a big turning point for me as an artist. The piece is titled “Me, My Class & I”––it includes a series of 16 self portraits that are displayed in the layout of a yearbook page. Read more>>

Dianna Nguyen | Wedding Videographer

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2022 has been to take more risks. As a type A perfectionist, I like to stay where I am comfortable. However, I have come to realize that there is no growth without “pain” so I have been working to push my limits and taking more risks. One of the biggest risks I’ve taken for both my life and career was going full-time with wedding videography. I had been working as a receptionist at a dental office on the weekdays and then working weddings on the weekends. Read more>>

Marie Rouhban | Director

I come from a risk-averse family: my father was a natural disaster specialist and my mom worked in insurance. If there’s one thing we tried to avoid in our house, it was taking risks! This led me to go down a rather traditional path academically speaking. Despite always being passionate about cinema and wanting to pursue a career in that industry, I went to business school after high school and spend the first 7 years of my professional life working in the corporate world. Read more>>

Hannah Rose | Singer, Songwriter, Producer

I think risk taking is one of the quickest ways to grow a business, while also growing as a person. It allows you to learn lessons, strengthen intuition, and prove that you can overcome challenges. Simultaneously, it encourages those around you to do the same when they see your resilience and success. In the past when I’ve taken risks in my career, it has expanded what I believe I’m capable of. Read more>>

GAVINCI | Music Producer & Designer

I think that risks are an essential part of growing. Without taking risks, it’s easy to fall into complacency and stop yourself from achieving what you want. Taking risks has played a massive role in my life and career, even down to my location. In the heat of the pandemic, I moved across the country from Virginia to California to be closer to the music industry. In making that move, I’ve been able to network with a lot of fire creatives that I wouldn’t have had I gotten comfortable and never taken the risk of moving out here. Read more>>

Laura Arledge | Designer + Founder, State.

I think it’s really important as an entrepreneur to be a dreamer, willing to take risks where others won’t, and have a degree of fearlessness. Without it, I would be too focused on reality to stretch myself and our team. It’s a tricky balance though and the balance of reality to risk always has to remain in check. When I started the company 6 years ago, I was internally struggling with risk even on the level of how far we take design risks with our clients— I think sometimes as designers starting out, Read more>>

Marni Blank | Trained death doula, lawyer, mediator, and female founded small business owner.

Risk is important for growth – I wouldn’t be where I am today without having taken big risks. In the beginning of my career, I followed a very traditional path. I graduated from college, got a job as a legal assistant at a large law firm and paid by dues working upwards of 90 hours a week. I then went to law school and got a job working for the government. For the next 5 years I went through the motions and replayed the same kind of day over and over again like ground hog day. I was unhappy and I knew that I needed to change but was scared. Read more>>

Eliza Shabo | Fashion and portrait photographer

Freelance work is always unstable, constant ups and downs. Photography is a very competitive business. It’s very easy to take a camera and make content. But it is very difficult to make it high-quality with its own specific memorable style. To make good money on photography, you need to work a lot for free, sometimes even pay for studio rent, the work of a model or makeup artist, or a stylist to improve your portfolio. Working as a freelancer every day you need to send a lot of emails and be ready to be rejected, sometimes it’s morally hard and you want to give up and go to work in the office, Read more>>

LaKendra Smalley | CEO, Master Level Mental Health & Complete Wellness Life Coach

My Mother used to say, “LaKendra, that dream you were given is going to require you to step outside of your comfort zone & take risk to grow that dream even bigger to meet your GREATEST SELF.” She told me this when I was 23 years old when I shared my entrepreneurial dreams with her. What I took away was, in order for me to grow into my greatest self, and see my business in the energy and light in which I saw in dreams all of the time – I could not be afraid to step into the danger zone knowing that risk is simply pressure created to shape me into my greatness. Read more>>

Dr. Joyce Park | Dermatologist at Skin Refinery & Content Creator @TeawithMD

Risk taking has been at the core of several pivotal moments in my career. One was taking a gap year during medical school, not to do research, volunteer in a clinic, or any of the more established paths that would get you into the residency program of your choice. I wanted to do something different. I took a year off to do a medical journalism fellowship, spending the summer at the WHO headquarters in Geneva talking to journalists about global health, then taking a quarter of journalism classes at Stanford, and rounding that out with a 6 month rotation in the NBC News headquarters, working as part of the medical unit. Read more>>

Shutong Liu | Look Development Artist & 2D artist

The biggest risk I’ve taken was making a career pivot. After getting my Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, I still had a nagging desire to be in the creative business – to learn from talented artists and work on exciting projects together as a team. No one in my family did anything similar for a living, and I was expected to pursue something in the STEM field. But I thought to myself if I didn’t make the jump then, I don’t know when I’d be able to do what I actually love. If I didn’t make it, at least I tried and won’t regret it. Read more>>

Prisma Pantoja | Brand Owner + Host + Food Vlogger

The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward! Kinda cliché of me to say this, but life truly is all about taking the risks. Whether the outcome is what you wanted or not, God is always going to give you what you need when you need it. Take the risk and have faith in the process. Eventually you will figure it out and all the doubts will be figured out. Read more>>

Steph Rawlins | Entreprenuer, Marketing Specialist , Creator & Producer

Taking a risk or risks, has played a huge part in what I accredit to my ability to be where I am today. It’s how my business partner and I have been able to connect to create our company CrossOVR Collective, and how I have been able to learn many key lesson’s, forge relationships and create many of my most memorable experiences. Read more>>

Salma Arastu | Visual Artist, Sculptor and Poet

I consider the risk as opportunity and often I opt for it. Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” Georgia O Keeffe I love this quote and I believe in it too. In my studio mysteries are revealed each day and I feel awed and inspired to delve further into the unknown fearlessly and look out for new visions emerging on my canvas. Read more>>

Christoher John | CJC Photography – Book Cover Photographer

Growing up, I didn’t take that many risks. I was more careful. However, I would say the biggest risk I took was in 2016 when I moved to Florida from Massachusetts. My goal was to pursue photography full time and that risk paid off and I haven’t looked back on that decision since. I do think the saying, “no risk, no reward” is true in that sense. Read more>>

Katharine Scarborough | Actress and Writer

Choosing to pursue a creative life is one of the biggest risks a person can take. Our culture’s obsession with productivity/PRODUCING is in direct conflict with what it means to live the life of an artist. It is a process, a journey, a not-guaranteed path that ebbs and flows and never looks exactly how one might expect it to. I knew, especially as a young, plus-size, character actress that the road to the career I wanted would be rocky, but nothing prepares you for how hard it is to stay the course and believe in yourself when things get tough. Read more>>

Angie Zou | Artist

Security is a false god. I try to make decisions intuitively now and based on what I think aligns with my personal value system. I try to make the healthiest decisions for myself, my artistic practice, and my community regardless of the risk attached to it (as long as it’s not clearly going beyond my physical or financial capacity). Overall, I invite fear and risk in my life and practice and see it as a healthy sign of growth. Read more>>

Estefania Quintero | Business Owner

Risk taking is everything. Without risk there is no success and no opportunities. I’ve always said it’s better to TRY and fail than to live with the “what ifs” and then later on in life live with regret. Taking a risk was primarily the reason I decided to open up a business & it was the best decision I could have made for myself and my future. As an entrepreneur, taking risks becomes part of your daily life. Read more>>

Andrea Bellucci | Music Composer for Films and Video Games

As a music composer, risk taking is a big aspect of the job. You have to create and grow your position in a saturated market, that is not even that big, and it’s basically based on the first impression that you and your music have on people who get in touch with you and listen to your work. There’s no such thing as relying on a sort of “product description” you could provide, I mean you can’t say “this is why my product (that is “my music”) is better than others’”: Read more>>

Bahar Beihaghi | Actress, Performer & Deviser

Risk taking is one of the fundamental attributes one needs when stepping into a career and lifestyle of an artist where one’s life is based on taking risks on a daily basis.  From hustling on the side to working daily on one’s craft as a performer/actor, from pouring one’s heart and soul into a character for an audition to countless rejections. I can’t imagine an artist who refuses to swim against the current. One of the biggest risks I took that led me to the place I am today is my drastic switch from civil engineering in Iran to immigrating to the US to pursue acting. Read more>>

SHIR | Songwriter & Artist

I think whenever I had the courage to take a risk in my life, it’s paid off for the most part. My dad always said, “the only way you learn is when you take risks.” I went to Belmont University in Nashville, TN and I was able to build a community of my own, and learn so much about songwriting- especially when it came to lyric writing because everyone in Nashville was so incredible at writing lyrics. During my Junior year of college, I ended up going on the London Trip which was this summer program where students got to write songs in London for a few weeks. Read more>>

Melissa McIndoe | Story Artist

Risk is necessary for anything that means something. Nothing extraordinary comes without risk! I took a risk when I moved to LA by myself in 2018. I had a few thousand saved and I moved there with only an interview for a part time minimum wage job locked down. It was a risk because if I didn’t land the job, I’d be completely without income. I had quit my 9-5 office job for this.. and the part time job wasn’t even in animation. It was at a kid’s museum. Read more>>

Ashley Turner | Social Event Planner & Creator of Fun

If I think about it, the whole initial concept for Los Angeles Fun Events began with a modest amount of risk-taking, sprinkled with a dash of “out of my comfort zone.” As an introvert, meeting up with a group of strangers from the internet to do fun things around the city (think hiking, kayaking, museums, movies, etc.) is probably the last thing anyone would have expected from me, but if I wanted anything to change about my current social life, then it was a necessary risk to take. And, honestly? It was the best thing I could have done for myself. Read more>>

Mario Alberto | Chef Owner

It’s very easy to get comfortable in your craft, in your knowledge, in your position, your salary, your title, but to shake the foundation of what you have already built and to put yourself in a position of insecurity, fear, failure – it’s the ultimate opportunity for individual growth. There are no risk unless you are identified and attached to all those things you already attained. Those same things are the things that eventually weigh you down. There is always a foreboding and apprehension to change or risk so there needs to be an acceptance of whatever comes. Read more>>

Chris Burnett | Artist

Risk has played a huge factor in my creative trajectory. I have a tendency to NOT follow what most people are doing, and most of that is just a natural inclination. Even back in middle school, I was the kid wearing custom made outfits and putting pink laces in my shoes…back when guys wearing pink was considered sus…Some of it is also just curiosity of the road less traveled. I would rather take a big risk like, quitting my job and pursuing freelance, than being unhappy and immobile in an undesirable situation. Read more>>

Janet Igah | Stylist & Publicist

My motto is “Take Flight! It is better to have gone and failed, than to not have gone at all.” Risks are scary, but necessary, for success. I have taken many risks, some calculated, others, not so much, but you’ll never know which is the one that will take flight. I’ve also learned a lot about myself in every process. The doing and the undoing. Read more>>

Magaly Rodriguez | Content creator/Influncer

I took a huge risk after quitting my 9-5 job to become a full-time content creator. It was not an easy decision since I was in the medical field and I was very stable with my job after being in the field for 4 years. It got to a point I was very stressed out because I was doing two jobs at the same time and big brands were reaching to work with me and I didn’t want to lose any of the opportunities. It took me 2 months to make my final decision to see what I wanted to do career wise. With the support of my manager, Read more>>