Are you a risk taker? Do you think you have a stronger appetite for risk relative to your friends and family? We asked some folks from the community about their approaches to risk and have shared their thoughts below.

Aranzy Castillo | Small Business Owner

Viva Lavanda is run by Aranzy and Vilma; a couple of best friends who took the biggest risk of their life in order to follow their dreams of becoming business owners. They lived comfortably in their 9-5 lives but always knew something was missing, so they left their jobs and worked hard to open up their own shop in Mission, Texas. Unfortunately, everything ended before it even began. So they had to go back to their hometown in Brownsville, Texas and continue to work in order to save up money, attend local small business markets, and they began hosting candle making workshops in art galleries that would give them the opportunity to do so. Read more>>

Janel Yglesias | Licensed Texas & Florida Real Estate Agent

I consider myself a calculated risk taker. Taking a risk involves straying out of your comfort zone and stepping into the unknown. I have done this a few times in my personal life as well as my professional life. It involves confronting your fear and taking a leap of faith and praying & hoping that everything will work out for the better. Sometimes, the hardest part is keeping the faith that everything will work out for the better – but you just have to keep going and trust the process. Some of the best moments of my life came to be because I decided to take a risk, a leap of faith. Read more>>

Melaner | Singer / Songwriter

Risk is a necessary Evil. In life when we decide to stay comfortable we don’t push past our boundaries. We don’t allow ourselves to become better versions of who we were yesterday out of fear that we will not succeed. In my life taking risks has been one of the main reasons I have accomplished all that I have in music and i’m still no where near where i’d like to be! Being an artist is one of the greatest risks you can take because it is not guaranteed that you will succeed. You just have to have the undeniable fire to refuse anything other than success. Read more>>

Marc Hunter | Mobile Detailer

I believe you have to be a risk taker in order to see growth and understand the process of entrepreneurship. My business started out as a risk. I started in the middle of a pandemic when the entire world was in a uncertain state. Now here I am almost 3 years later and I’ve acheive alot of success from that risk. Risk taking separates the doers from the thinkers. You can think about something as much as you want but until you actually take the risk and put action behind it you’ll never know where it leads. Read more>>