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.

Armando Hernandez | Mundo Boxing Promotions

Calculated risks are a critical part of the formula to success in just about any endeavor. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Scared money doesn’t make money. You have to take risks and be different. If you do the same thing everyone else is doing, you will get the same results. Read more>>

Nadjhla Gracia | Fashion Designer & Entrepreneur

Taking risks has always fueled my creative process; remaining consistent helps bring about the best possible outcome. Maya Angelou often inspired me growing up. Especially her quote saying she believes that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare. Read more>>

Linda Ammons | Artist

Risk has been my middle name. I come from a long line of female risk -takers. My great-grandmother Mary Ann Robinson walked off a sharecropping plantation because she was being cheated. My grandmother,Emma Golson and her daughter, my mother Mary Louise McCoy left the south for the north during the great migration of the 40’s and 50’s. Read more>>

Ross Seay | Cyber Security Expert & Entreprenuer

As an entrepreneur, I always believed that failure and success, for the most part, hinge on how an individual deals with fear and risk. The confidence level in taking calculated risk is what separates most successful people from those who have failed. Many great ideas haven’t come to light because people couldn’t find it in themselves to believe. Read more>>

Sabrina Badeaux | Wellness Entrepreneur

Risk is the very thing that sets our souls on fire – that makes us feel alive. However it’s typically viewed through the lens of uncertainty and fear. The unknown is scary, but we do we truly have to lose? I believe regret is even scarier. Read more>>

Mariana Umana | Lifestyle Blogger

In life, when you don’t risk anything, you don’t win. When you take a risk, you understand the value of goals and how hard sometimes it may be to attain it. Each risk we take in life gets us closer to what we want to be. So even if we may fail in the process, in reality, we learn in part because of the risk we took. Read more>>

Misty Lam | Founder of aestheticreative Marketing

I find risk to be a necessity behind the success of any field and at any scale. And by scale, I mean this could be you quitting your job or you taking out a business loan. No business just starts out of thin air. You need resources, you need material, you need time, and all of those investments are “risky” because there may not be a return for a while or even sometimes at all. Read more>>

Rae Jenae | Lesbian Event Coordinator

I take risk in my everyday life for about as long as I can remember, from moving to Miami from New York with no job or family, to creating my own business providing for a community that primarily doesn’t receive as much support. Everyday I take a risk on me and the things I believe in. I truly believe that the lesbian community specifically needs more safe spaces and bars/clubs that we can call our own. Read more>>

Autumn Marie | Yoga Instructor & Photographer

I’m not really sure if I truly believe in the concept of risks or risk taking. To me risks are really just decisions we make, and no matter what, that decision or choice will lead us to something, and that, to something else. The day I bought a one-way ticket to Central America to backpack, I was nervous. Read more>>

Anna Spellman | Home Decor Designer

The word risk itself holds so much power, it stirs up a sort of anxiety in most of us. To know you are taking a risk, stepping out of your comfort zone is one of the most brave things you can do for yourself. Letting go of control, is part of taking that risk. You must release any negativity you believed about yourself. Read more>>

David Lawrence Palmer | Celebrity Astrologer, CEO High Vibe TV, Persona behind “The Leo King” Pro Jet Ski Racer, and Pro House DeeJay

Risk-taking is something that a lot of people talk about, but they really don’t really it isn’t a talking point or a thought, it is an action. I feel risk is the fear before the action taken, or the plunge deep into your truth. In business, there are so many fears. It is when you are fearless that things happen to manifest, but when you do too much risk assessment, and thinking things through in today’s economy and business world, you are too late. Read more>>

Savannah and Ryan Parker | Graphic Designers & Photographers

Ryan: When I think of the word risk, I always associate it with opportunities and faith. I never look at risks as necessarily a bad thing. I feel that taking risks takes courage, and that’s something that everyone should have. Read more>>

Ronnie Hartfield | Vibe Dealer, Radio Personality, Playlist Curator

i love risks, it defines me more than anything, coincidently my instagram handle used to be “Risk It All Ron”. I’m very fond of the term ” Do It Scared”, its the thing that drives me, if the risk isn’t high enough and i don’t have butterflies in my stomach before i make the decision then i likely am not that passionate about whatever it is, but if i’m nervous and i’m calculating every thing that can possibly go wrong then i know that i’m on the right and tha my “calculated risk” is worth the shot. Read more>>