Taking Risk is essential, but how much, when and why? Taking risks effectively is as much of an art as it is a science and we’ve asked some of the brightest folks in the community to tell us about how they think about risk taking.

Shira Lee Abergel | Singer-Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist, Actress, Writer & Director

I think it’s all about risk! As a creative I’m constantly risking. Whether I’m singing, acting or curating a show on the wagon, it’s a vulnerable thing to reveal your deepest self through your art, and THAT is really the big risk. You don’t know what people will think or how they will judge you until after you show your soul through your art or business. But that is also why the pay off of risk is so rewarding. If people like it….GREAT! But even if they don’t, you’ve put yourself out there, and you’ve learned something. Unless you risk it and put yourself out there, you will never learn and grow. For me, even making a phone call to connect with someone about recording, or looking for business opportunities is a risk. My heart beats fast and I get nervous that the answer on the other line will be a no. Read more>>

Sarah Ann Telemaque | Brand Designer & Author

Taking risks has played a huge role in my life now from business to family. I used to play things safe and play them with approval. The approvals that you get from family, friends, and peers. I have learned the approvals only keep things safe. We rely on them to feel safe enough to make a decision. Think about it… when you are taking a risk, 85% of the time people around you won’t agree with what you are getting ready to do. To me, it is something that lives on the other side of fear and it requires fearlessness to even take it. I had to begin to take risks in my life or else my life would have been very cookie-cutter, purposeless, and not inspirational. Risks don’t make sense and they aren’t supposed to. Risk has the possibility of failure, which in turn leads to success anyway. Read more>>

Josniel Fiallo | President

Risk is essential to every business. I truly believe in the essence of risk and the achievement of goals that come with it. The fashion industry is a fundamental risk every season; the ability to decipher and commit fully to trend comes with its pros and cons. Rex Fabrics wouldn’t be what it is today without the risk we put in it. Read more>>

Michael Dunn | Attorney

Any great opportunity comes with some degree of risk. I’ve taken plenty of chances, and plenty of them didn’t fall my way. In the long run though, if you pick your spots thoughtfully, have confidence that you’re doing everything you can to improve chances to succeed, the rewards make it all worth it. It definitely doesn’t hurt to have people you love and trust supporting you through the good and the bad, and I’m grateful that I’ve had that. Read more>>

Samantha Earle | Insurance Agency and Broker& Driving School-Operational Manager

I feel it depends on the personality of a person. Taking a risk can be positive or negative, it’s unpredictable. I truly think that the person might know deep down if something will work out for them. It became second nature since I was a young adult. I started my first business at the age of 21, “Samantha’s invitations”. It didn’t work out as planned but I took a risk. I worked two jobs, internship and attended college. Some people might say, it’s not worth working so hard but it’s positive thinking and staying focused. Things might not happen as quickly but it does eventually. I relocated to Miami from New York. I left a secured career to venture out to new things. I didn’t know what Miami had in mind for me but what I can say, the risk-taking had a husband, a son, and two businesses waiting for me. Read more>>

Chef Paul | Chef Entertainer & Public Speaker

Calculated risks are most often worth it. Some of my biggest accomplishments or clients, came from taking the risk and saying yes. Sometimes those opportunities don’t present themselves a second time and it’s best to be ready to take that risk. There’s a quote from Richard Branson, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” This quote has stuck with me for years and yes it might be risky, but it most often pays off. Even when I failed from taking some risks, which I have many times over, it was still a valuable teaching moment that would not have presented itself had I not taken that risk. Sometimes, the people who know where the edge is, are the people who have chosen to go over it: I’ve gone over many times and loved it. Read more>>

Christina Algeciras | Psychotherapy & Wellness

Risk has been a big part of my growth, personally and professionally. While I may not really think of myself as a big risk-taker, upon reflection, I realize I have gone through numerous periods of high-risk decisions. In a previous career, I took a risk to move to New York and spent many years building a career in international logistics. At a certain point, I found myself burned out and took a big risk to move back to Miami and start a new career in the field of wellness, working with children and adults through yoga, mindfulness, cooking, and creativity. As I grew in the field, I realized I wanted a more extensive education and went back to school in my mid 30’s to finish getting my undergraduate degree and eventually get my master’s in mental health counseling. In 2020, I started my psychotherapy practice and that brought its own challenges as Covid began to impact how everyone interacts and functions in the world. Read more>>

Alicia Sirkin

Taking risks has been among the most valuable, life-changing, and positive experiences of my life. Risks have taken me in wondrous directions I never could have planned or imagined! I love this quote from one of my teachers: “Isn’t it time to start living instead of just surviving?” I believe that if we don’t take risks, we are simply surviving and not living life to the fullest. At this age in my life (at 73 years young), I think about risk as an opportunity for enhanced personal growth and self-confidence. Taking risks offers me a chance to either succeed in a personal or business goal, or to accept responsibility for learning a lesson from an unsuccessful attempt, all of which leads to positive outcomes because I choose to make it so! Read more>>

Sophia Valdes | Art Director & Designer

For me, to risk is to explore. An exploration of any kind is a risk, whether its a positive or a negative experience – you’ve now explored something new because of this risk you have taken. One of the most important risk taking events in my career was taking the risk of ‘having no fear’. If you consider yourself to be an artist or just haven’t discovered that you are yet, you know that self doubt is a huge contributor to fear. Now I can’t say that I alone allowed myself to truly believe in this ‘no fear’ idea, I have to give credit to a lot of friends and family who encouraged this idea. Thank you, mean it. Two years ago I challenged myself to take on this ‘risk’, the chance to believe I could achieve more as an artist. For so long I had doubted my abilities. Even though I had made some great milestones in my career and discovered new ways to transform my skills, I felt a stagnant weight. Read more>>

Reed van Brunschot | Artist, Designer & Professor

As a child, our family moved so much, (I am talking about changing continents, moved), and all that time I wished for stability. When it came time to go to college, it’s as if that momentum of childhood became my norm and I wanted to keep moving. As a lifelong dream, I really wanted to study art in New York, but my father said colleges were way too expensive, art was not a stable career, and NYC was not a good place for an 18-year-old to go by herself. As an alternative he proposed, since I was half Dutch ( & half Peruvian) in nationality, why not study business or fashion in Amsterdam where studies are heavily subsidized instead? So I studied fashion (a more business-creative compromise than just studying art) and I moved to Amsterdam. After my studies and a few years working in fashion, plus several other soul searching internships later, I realized I was not happy. Read more>>

Ramses Principe | Personal Trainer & Entrepreneur

I wouldn’t be the person I am today or be in the position that I am today if it wasn’t for taking risk in life and stepping out of my comfort zone. the only way that we can reach our full potential in life is by taking the risk even if we don’t know if we will succeed or not. Read more>>

Nicole Gener | Artist & Entrepreneur

Risk is an immense part of my career. I used to live my life in complacency afraid of any backlash that came with risks. Thankfully, I realized the safe choices I made were never going to give me the life I wanted; I needed to push myself to be better. As a result, I took the biggest risk I had ever taken in my life: investing all my time, money, and energy into building my brand which has ultimately had the greatest payoff. Risks are the reasons for success in any career or life endeavor. Read more>>

Chinmaya Chaitanya | Aspiring Graphic Designer

If you want to do something big in ur life, change the way you live currently, wanna improve your life, you will have to take risks in your life. When i was a teenaget I preferred stability in my life that’s why I was afraid to take life changing decisions, I was insecure, had low self esteem and that’s the reason why I was not succeeding anywhere ,whether it was my academics or my creative fields. I took part in various art, painting contests with enthusiasm but never managed to win or even get any honourable mentions. There was a point in my life when I had nothing to lose and I just let go the fear of the future and took big risks and made some life changing decisions. I moved to another city far away from my parents, passionately started working in the creative fields without worrying about the outcomes. Read more>>

WHUT | Graffitti & Streetartist

As a Graffitti/Streetartist risk is everything, these art forms are all about risk,I have risked life/death just to express myself. That risk has helped me be successful and take as many chances and opportunity life has presented me.My career and my success in my career have been all based on risk. Read more>>

Anthony Rodriguez | Youtuber, Beatboxer, Video Editor & Music Creator

Risk is extremely important. Life is full of risks and I take them knowing I might be worth it. An example of a risk I took in life has gotta be the risk of moving out on my own. It was a scary risk, as it should be for any new adult moving out. I was making just enough per week to make it at the place I was working. I felt that it was the better option for me, so I took it. It was definitely risky and scary. But I managed it well, and it allowed me freedom in owning my craft and future career. Another great risk I took that was most recent, was taking a small break from college, to focus on the career. I want to be a professional youtuber, music creator, and video editor. I have auditioned for Americas Got Talent a few times, worked hard, so on and so forth. I am taking the risk of taking a break off from college to focus only on the youtube channel, music choice, and video editing skills. Read more>>

Kevin Burtram | Record Producer, Recording Artist & Joyful Noise Chaser

I believe that risk is essential to the act of creation. You don’t know how things will be received, you don’t know how they will turn out, you don’t know how long it will take or how much it will take from you. I started chasing music in earnest (full-time) in the year 2020! I had no idea what it would cost – if I knew what lay ahead, I can’t say I would have had the stomach for it. The events of the last year have solidified my belief, that art is necessary to this world, to shape culture and help us all face uncertainty. Cracking the mystery of calling, is a lifelong pursuit. The obstacles that accumulate along the way and the creativity it takes to get through them – all add to the richness of the pursuit itself. Read more>>

Leo Delgado | Founder & President

We are change-agents and constantly question the status quo. We pave a new path for the technology industry by changing the current market to better our clients and their experience. We do not take no for an answer (respectively!) to continue to progress the industry. Read more>>

Maya Mitchell | Portrait Painter & Sketch Artist

Standing on the sandy bank of the Ganges River, I let go of the remaining strands of my hair. My head, smooth as a baby’s bottom, was shaved by one of the monk’s barbers with a straight razor. On my journey of “non-attachment” I threw away my things, moved to India, and let go of traditional American standards of beauty. To say I’m a “risk-taker”, and that I do so to grow, is an understatement. The one defining, life-altering, constant in my life has been risk. I took my first major risk when I was 6 years old and refused to enter my abusive fathers home. I threw such a fit, after a particularly nasty incident, I never stepped through his door again. When I was 14, I left home voluntarily to put some distance between myself and him. Like First Lady Elenor Rosevelt said: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” Read more>>