What is the biggest risk you have taken in your life that paid off?
 

12 years ago, at 19 years old, at about this time of day I got on a flight from JFK with a one way ticket to London. I have lived here ever since, married my late husband who was the reason behind my trip and eventually became a British citizen (dual citizenship with the USA). I think that now at 31 I wouldn't take that risk but I am sure glad that at 19 I for once in my life let my heart rule my head (I am a very head lead person).

What is the biggest risk you have taken in your life that turned out to have been worth it?

I did hide a porn mag in my room when I was a kid, it payed of many times.

never really took any big risks in my life

I'm rather the type who carefully plans everything

My biggest risk was stopping with my study to do adult full-time. My parents weren't too happy when I made that decision :) 7 years later, I'd say it paid off...

Getting selfemployed right after high school.. never did any part time jobs or something. Always made my own money somehow. From selling pot to peddling porn to founding companies. Some stuff i own makes money some others dont. I hold percentages on well known internet portal´s and i still dont do much beside smoking pot, masturbating, banging hookers and loosing my driving license every other month. Its just my way of living a good life.
Also moved to couple of different countries without knowing anyone there. It always payed off somehow. Either business wise or social wise.
But like everywhere.. theres two sides of the story. You have some good times and you have some really bad times when you dont make any decent buck. When i was younger i didnt safe anything so i basiclly had to live check 2 check which is really fucked up! But since iam grown up and a act a bit more mature i can still do what i want and i have my safeings for the hard times now :)

Telling the doctors to go ahead and do surgery, I'm still alive guess it paid off...

I fucked my friend girlfriend :P

Going into the online business on my own right after school.

I dropped out of the best Engineer College down here in Brazil (the toughest one to get accepted also), to apply for a Business College.

Couldn't be happier with my choice.

:)

are your business studies really helpfull to submit galleries and run TGP's?

(I think this is what you do if I recall correctly)

smuggling

starting my company with zero money and no clue about this biz and photography in general

Right after i graduated from college, I moved to LA with my ex gf. Neither one of us had jobs and combined, we had $3,000 saved. We drove from PA to California in about 5 days, then lived in this dumpy apartment in downtown LA for a few months.

I tried working some jobs, then decided I would just start my own SEM/PPC business and do adult stuff at the meantime. I worked for 2 big SEM firms for about 2-3 months each to figure out how they worked, then started working for myself just over a year after I first moved to LA.

Recent risk I took was to move back to PA for a bit to help out with family stuff, as well to save some money (rent in LA is expensive). its paying off ok, but cant wait to get back to sunny california :winkwink:

I decided to leave my mothers womb.

I quit my job on a whim. My boss pissed me off and I knew I could make more money if I didn't have to leave my desk for my 8-5 job. I just didn't have the guts to quit until he made me mad. That was the last time I ever had a "real" job.

That kind of choice is usually made for you eventually if you cling on too long :)

I've taken a ton of risks in my life and I would say all of them paid off in one way or another to get me where I am today. As I get older I find myself much more risk adverse, which honestly makes me sad.

Turning down a job at Dean Witter to start my own business in 96.

Only natural though, I think. I think the older we get the more we know what there is to risk.

You're right.

Also, the older we get the more we have to lose so the risk becomes riskier.... blahblahblah.

Still sad. :upsidedow

I drafted CC Sabathia for my fantasy baseball league last year, and that paid off big time.

on the other side, I drafted Barry Zito too. That did not pay off at all.

entering adult id say he he

dumping my crazy x. It's paid off!

Becoming self employed 15 years ago. I don't think I could ever go back to working for someone else (though at times I feel like I have a thousand bosses, not just one).

Quitting the dayjob was risky I guess, seeing as I had no money saved up and only one month long programming contract to go on... That was a long bump road for quite a while :winkwink:

A lot of people say selling my shit and buying a 1 way ticket to Costa Rica was big, but to me it wasn't that risky, I had friends here and knew the lower cost of living would be helpful.

yup, know the feeling..I think most of us do as we get *gasp* older ;)

What kind of fantasy baseball do you play? I grew up with a dad who is a hardcore Stratomatic player.

Was there a chance to be killed ?

Divorcing , packing my bags and moving in other country , and i do not regret it :)

Post her pic to see what can be so scary about her lol

Marying my wife :P It's still paying off.

when i stopped schooling in my college to find a job and help my parents. Every situation has it's pros and cons. I would say that incident helped me in some way and gave some frustration as well. But i just took it in a more positive way and made it as my strength.

Moving out of my old place to Live in LA and work in Porn :thumbsup:thumbsup

- buying my first house at 22
- quitting a high-pay 'cake' job to start my own business
- getting married

Next to getting married, I'd say it was quitting the one office job I've ever had to start working for myself online. 11 years later, it's definitely not easier than having a guaranteed paycheck and I can't get my taxes finished in 5 minutes or less, but at least now I can drink while I work and rotate from the pool to the computer. :thumbsup

Getting into Mainstream IT consulting 100% in June 2006 ..... Lots of Reselling products (Cisco, RSA, AT&T) a lot of cabling ( inside wiring ) combined with onsite engineering hours for troubleshooting, installs, migrations, etc.

by June 2007 - I ran at 1.2M USD in revenue.

As of now - I run at 2.5M with a projected $4m+ for 2008 total.

Its a lot of work but it absolutely pays off. :thumbsup

Same here, 10 years for me.

In my early 30's I made it my goal to retire from my job by the age of 40. I beat that by 3 years.

Big risk, but I wouldn't change it for the world now. And I could never go back to working a job again.

I took the red pill.

One way ticket to the US at 19. Can't even measure how much it has paid off.

bravo :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

Was offered a BIG one, but for some reason had my head up my ass. I would have been 1/3 owner of the distribution for Corona beer on the east coast, at the age of 19.

I ate in streets of India...

yeah, I guess deciding not to go into my 'real job' that day and going full time at this was probably a good sized risk too