Shoot your shot? Take a chance? Society bombards us with messages, phrases, examples and stories of how taking risk is the key to success, but is anything ever that simple? We asked some of the brightest folks we know to tell us about how they think about risk. We’ve shared their responses below.

Isismari Sanabria | TAX PREPARER, ACCOUNTING AND MORE

I want to start by thanking shout Atlanta for allowing me to do this. It is a wonderful opportunity and I am grateful to be nominated. My name is Isismari Sanabria, I am 36 years old was born in Puerto Rico, and grew up in New York City. I am a wife and mother to 5 amazing children. This is the way my story begins: Since as far back as I can remember, I have always liked helping people. It feels great to be able to see family, friends, and clients succeed in their dreams. It has been a long road to get me to where I stand today, I was indecisive as to what I wanted to do as a profession. Read more>>

Cameo Adele | Singer/ Songwriter

I see risk as the step necessary to take to get to where you want to be. As an artist, the entire lifestyle is a risk. I took a risk in pursuing something that I’m passionate about rather than something practical and in that, I also took on the job of having to get to know myself which many professions don’t necessarily require. There’s so much risk necessary when getting to know yourself emotionally cause you have to be willing to get messy with yourself and pull up painful stuff and be vulnerable in order to be able to tap into that for an audience or to write a song. My life is a series of risk taking and I always remind myself, regardless of how scary it is, on the other side I will be where I want to be. Read more>>

Jasmine Seals | Five Star Rated Spa Owner & Queen of Atlanta’s Date Night Scene

I am a firm believer in the saying, “No risk, no reward.” I am no stranger to it. I’ve been a risk taker all my life! The funny thing is, my career started out in risk management and insurance claims, so for me, there’s always been an interest in assessing risk and risky situations. Although taking risks can be scary, I do believe that to a certain degree, in our personal and professional lives risks can be managed. Dedication and preparation are key. Read more>>

Omar Grant-Brown | Music Marketing, Promotions & Manager

Taking risks has never intimated me enough to not follow my dreams. Moving to Atlanta and pursuing a career in the music industry was the biggest and best decision of my life. Coming from where I come from in South Carolina, it’s two different worlds, Atlanta is full of opportunities in the music industry. Moving to Atlanta I have gained knowledge and experience that has shown me that I can adapt to any situation in life while pursuing the music industry. If I wasn’t a risk-taker, I would never be where I am today. Read more>>

Brandon Chavannes | Executive Chef

Risk, like failure, is essential to growth in my view, and I have failed quite a bit. I think that risk equates to one’s desire to challenge themselves and without it there is no opportunity to do anything of worth. Read more>>

Margaret Kanu | Hand-crafted Beaded Jewelry

In my opinion, risk are healthy depending on what kind of risks you take. They can either make you or break you and I do encourage everybody to take risk because one risk could change your life forever. In my life/career, taking risks as helped me grow as a person and in my business. I was nervous when I initially thought of creating my own business because there were a lot of risk like what if I don’t profit, or nobody shops, but I’m happy that I took that risk because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have the same drive/mentality that I have now. Everything that you do for the first time has some sort of risk involved in it. Most people associate risk with being negative when they can be healthy. It’s up to you to take that life-changing risk! Read more>>

Christian Wilson Wilson | Photographer & Videographer

I truly believe taking a risk is what gives you a chance to grow in the first place. To start a photography business you have to buy top of the line equipment and that comes with a very large cost. Lights, Lenses, Cameras, Batteries, Tripod, Microphones, Software, etc.. All of those purchases can add to $20,000-$30,000 varying on what level you buy. Before I started my photography business I was on the fence as to if I should spend this much without having any clientele or higher level skills. Ultimately, I decided to go full in establishing to myself and viewers the path I wanted the business to go. Read more>>

QP. WorldWide | Artist Owner Visionary

I feel like if you’re scared to take a risk out here you wont succeed at all. You have to be willing to take risk an bet big on yourself if you expect to succeed in the world of working for yourself. Im not saying take ever risk and chance of opportunity that comes your way ; but the phrase.”Scared money dont make no money” is still alive an breathing. The trick is to be tactical and strategic with your movements so you know the weight of the risk your taking. Now with that being said you can over analyze any situation so you have to learn when an how , and the only way to learn that is by taking risk an learning from your outcomes. The start of my business was a risk and according to everybody and every statistic: bad timing and not a good idea. Read more>>

Ebony Butler | Baker

I took a big race going full force with the Cake business. I left a six-figure paying job to open up my own bakery in 2019 right at the strike of Covid. In the beginning I was a little discouraged because it seemed like maybe that wasn’t the right move to make at the time, but I just took a risk and went all in. It was the best choice I’ve ever made in my life and I never look back. Read more>>

FMR Roqqie | Artist , Producer, Songwriter

Risk are a necessary evil. Not to say the the act alone brings bad vibes or outcomes. But its definitely something the average person wouldn’t prefer. Even entrepreneurs that know its inevitable on the path to success, you still have to breathe deep and go for the gold. No matter how many times you do it. You never get used to it. You just know better than to run from them because that will lead to missed opportunities. Taking risk has been a bitter sweet road. In the beginning of my career I was all in. Read more>>

Adina Diaz | Ritual Candle Marker & Skincare Specialist

Positive risk-taking can offer rewards mentally, spiritually and financially. I had to allow myself to welcome fear and honor the lessons and process of healthy risk taking. Growth doesn’t come without discomfort and I knew me taking a risk in my business would come with many challenges and hard times. That the journey wouldn’t come easy and to remember us entrepreneurs have to be fearless. Without risk, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. Without risk, I would’ve stayed stagnant and not grow as much as I have in the past year. As the journey continues I have changed my relationship with fear that revolves around risk-taking. Every career decision I make is a gamble and risk but I would rather know in my life that I have taken chances with passion, heart and soul then not at all. Read more>>

Kenion Sherrill | Rap Artist & Cook

I think taking a risk is worth doing. Even if it works out it not, it will always be a listen learned. Take the best educated risk tho. Read more>>

Zuhal Vanli | Digital Creator
Risk takers know that success won’t fall in your lap. You have to chase and hunt it. This is what I do when I take risks. The more risks you take, the less you see anything that can stop you. Read more>>

Erykah Cook | Fashion Model

Risk taking in my career field is definitely necessary! Working as a professional model in order to cross new barriers and get a certain creative look taking a risk can elevate you. Risk taking has without a doubt helped me with my confidence. I’ve done shoots that I would’ve never done if I didn’t take that creative risk. Read more>>

Newland Jones | Digital Entrepreneur/Actor

Taking risk is key ! No risk no reward. With that being said it’s the big risk that turns into those life changing movements, or those big career milestones. You just can’t be afraid to jump out on faith and take a risk. The moment I started taking risk opportunities came in from different avenues. You could end up in a better situation in 48 hrs off of taking 1 risk Read more>>

Kyra Carey | Live Streamer

I never really used to be a risk taker until i realized I needed to live my life for me. If you’re too worried about how others will perceive you, then you aren’t really living for you or living to your true potential. When I started taking risks everything started to align the way i wanted. If I wouldn’t haven taken a risk this year I would have never gotten the opportunity to work with MTV this year. I would have never gotten to be on Double Shot at Love and meet all of the amazing people that I did and everything since that has been working out in my favor! I’m still getting to meet wonderful people. I’ve encountered many new opportunities by taking that risk as well! Read more>>

Sweet but Fearless | Co-founders Cooper Alexander and Mary Sullivan, Career Consultants

Cooper: I see risk as taking a calculated risk. I’ve taken risks on changing careers and being a corporate nomad. Viewing risk as an opportunity to learn, experience, and fail, it expands your knowledge. The most important thing to do is not avoid risk, choose the risks you want to take and go for it. Then if you do fail, realize it’s not the end of the world and get back up. It only makes you stronger. Read more>>

Quamere and Shanice Rooks | Posh360 Events Owners

In short, risk taking for us, has been a process of growth and unlearning habits. Growing up, it was instilled from an early age that higher education is the only way to be successful and obtain financial stability. Many times, we tend to follow what we see or are exposed to, and that played a major part in how we understood risks. I believe the fear of the unknown and lack of understanding held us back from reaching for our true potential. Well that all changed this year, when we had a few unexpected tragedies that prompted us to re-evaluate if we are truly living or just waiting for the “right time” to step out on faith and believe in ourselves. As you can see, we decided to take that risk, and became the first in our respective families, to make that leap and become the owners of Posh360 Events. Read more>>

Dorian Purnell | Barber shop owner, Fade 4 the Grade (nonprofit CEO)

I think that taking risk has played an important part in my career due to the fact that I’m driven off of faith and it took a good amount of faith to leave my “stable” job to become a business owner and to count on myself to make things happen. You tend to realize your worth more when it’s all on you to produce. Read more>>

Yujie Huang | Illustrator & Graphic Designer & Motion Designer

Risk-taking plays an essential role in my life. There are only two ways to improve myself in terms of creativity, drawing, and painting skills. One is continuous practicing; the other one is risk-taking. Constant practicing allows me to improve my skills slowly and stably. On the other hand, risk-taking brings me significant and unexpected improvement. The most considerable risk I have ever taken is choosing to learn illustration in a foreign country when I was 18. this decision changed my life; I have become a much more mature and skillful artist and person now. As an illustrator or painter, changing the medium or the logic of painting is also risky, especially when I can create high-level images with a specific medium. Read more>>

Chata | Makeup Artist, Master Cosmetologists & Influencer

Honestly, for me, I feel like I risked a lot. I went from doing hair, to selling clothes, to doing make-up and more, all in the pursuit of creatively building confidence and hoping to inspire other women. I risked my lively-hood and the pursuit of money over and over to accomplish this goal. I think of risk now as a tool of growth even though it may be scary at times. It feels like I rolled the dice a lot, so risk played a big role in my life. Read more>>

Bayasa Batsaikhan | Lifestyle and Fashion Curator

Risk taking takes purpose and effort because if you are comfortable where you are and where you are heading currently, what would push you to take that risk? I think about risk taking as a lesson, whatever risk you take and whether you have negative outcomes or positive outcomes is a lesson that will make you better in the long run. You figure out what works and what does not. I have taken risks all my life from applying to graduate school last minute to dedicating 10+ hours to content creation to spending money on new skills such as pilot training, and establishing rates for my brand deals and styling clients. Not all the risks I have taken have ended the way I want it to, but it taught me to do better the next time. Risks are opportunities with consequences. Read more>>

Alichia Anderson | Hair braider (Hairstylist)

Since starting my business in the past year , I have had to learn the importance of taking risks. I have learned that you have to be able to take constructive criticism at any moment. I have also learned that you have to come out your comfort zone to learn new things. I started my braiding business about a year ago scared and nervous of what people would say. Launching my business in the midst of all the other professionals was very motivating to me , because I knew one day that could be me. Instead of backing down , being scared of what others would think and comparing myself to Hairstylist with years of experience, I changed my attitude into a willingness to learn from those that were better than me. We all have to start from somewhere and be willing to grow. Read more>>