We asked some of our favorite folks what makes them happy and why?

Sara Taylor

I’ve had to take a lot of risks for my photography business and other entrepreneurial endeavors. When I first started my business I really was still learning a lot but the best way to learn is to jump in and do it. I had recently been laid off from a position I had held for over 7 years. Instead of looking for something else, I decided I’d take a chance at something I had been interested in for quite some time. I started out by taking a lot of photos for family and friends, and studying images by photographers that I loved, especially newborn photographers. Read More>>

Michelle Hirschman

How I Think About Risk – And the Role It’s Played in My Life and Career

Risk has never been something I’ve chased for thrill or status—but it has been a necessary companion on the journey of living and working in alignment with my values. For me, risk has often meant choosing heart over comfort, uncertainty over stability, and purpose over predictability. Read More>>

Jo + Todd Harmon-Garner

We have been unwittingly destined to become risk takers. Firstly, we committed to moving in together after only a year and a half of being in an LA vs. BK long-distance relationship. Fifteen years later – we are proudly living survivors. We love meeting new people and experiences. We have jumped at the chances, swallowed the failures and accepted the challenges to explore creating and communicating through our love for arts and culture. Read More>>

Miao Li, Ph.D.

I have always been a risk averse individual. I don’t like risk and tries to minimize risk at all times. Therefore, it often takes a while for me to make decisions. However, I took some big risks in the process of building my career.

It was not easy to study in the field of psychology and become a psychologist. Growing up in China and Japan, psychotherapy is not well-known and there are a lot of stigma related to mental health issues. I did not know much about how I can become a therapist.  Read More>>

Debbie Kasper

That’s such a great and unusual question. Risk is my mantra, starting from the reckless days of my youth, I’ve always been enticed, even seduced by risk. I come from a long line of risk takers, so my socialization has always been risk-based. I have frightening memories of my father driving so far up a very windy and narrow mountain road, that he made us all get out of the car, for fear he was about to drive it off the cliff.  Read More>>

Linda Mac Dougall

Taking risks has always been a vital part of my life and career. As a child, I was introverted and often found myself around chaotic situations outside my bedroom. However, I eventually learned to speak up for what I believed in.

My first courageous act was, with heart pounding, confronting my angry mother when I discovered her kicking a chained dog. To my surprise, my defiance led her to recognize her overreaction. Read More>>

Julisa Chavez

Risk is a word that embodies so many negative emotions—fear, doubt, failure, etc. But I think of something John A. Shedd once said: “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” This quote has completely changed my perspective on taking risks. Too often, we grow up with such a strong fear of failure that we stop ourselves from taking risks. Only when we learn that risk is an essential part of growing do we truly understand the beauty of it. Read More>>

Winston Ashby

If you are scared to take risks, you limit yourself and your potential to grow. It is important to know and understand your strengths, your abilities, and your gifts. It is also to important to understand and identify your challenges and build a plan to address them as well as center yourself around people and tools that can help you to navigate and jump hurdles over your perceived “weaknesses”. Taking risks means betting on yourself and abilities. the most important thing to understand, is that ability is the root of availability. Read More>>

Yaxin Zheng

In my career as an intimacy coordinator, risk has played a very important role. When I chose this path, there were no clear models in China or even in East Asia. Many people did not understand what this role meant. It was risky to step into a profession that had little recognition and no standard framework. But I believed that protecting actors and building a safe creative process was worth trying. Each project has its own risks—sometimes it is about cultural barriers, sometimes it is about convincing a production team to adopt new practices. But every time I chose to take these risks, I gained experience and opened new opportunities for myself and for the industry. Read More>>

Indiana Lormont

I see risk not as something to be avoided, but as something to be managed and embraced when the potential for growth outweighs the fear of uncertainty. One of the most defining risks I took was moving from France to the United States for college. I was leaving behind everything familiar: family, language, culture, to study in a place where I knew no one and had to completely rebuild my support system from scratch. Read More>>