In Monday’s story I mentioned surveying women about the risks they’ve taken. I asked them to share what they feared would happen versus the reality of what actually happened and found that in every case, the fears bore little or no relation to the outcomes.

What makes one risk greater than another? Why do you take that risk, but not this one? Think about it. Your answers may surprise you.

Here are some of the stories the women shared. Although women  may have the tendency to err on the conservative side, these stories illustrate that few great stories begin without a risk taken or a gamble made.

Jennifer Gresham

Career Design Blogger at Everyday Bright (@JenGresham)

Risk Taken: When I was applying to college I applied to exactly three schools: the Air Force Academy, West Point, and the Naval Academy. It’s very difficult to get in. Looking back, it was insane. Why my parents let me do that I do not know.

Most Feared Outcomes: Because of the relationship with my father, I knew that I had to go to a school where he didn’t have to pay for anything. Otherwise, he would use the financial issue to control my life.

What Actually Happened: I got accepted to all three, but when I went for the interview with my senator, they asked me a math question. I completely blanked; I had no clue how to answer this question. Finally I said, “I don’t know how to answer that question.” I had not taken five steps out of the building until I started bawling my eyes out. Oddly enough, I did get a nomination, and I really think it was because I was able to get through the interview. After all, that’s one of the skills required at the Academy–to be able to get through something.

Annabel Candy

Blogging Expert and Get in the Hot Spot Blogger (@GetInTheHotspot)

Risk Taken: I gave birth to my second child, a whopping 11 lb., 1 oz. (5kg) baby at home naturally, despite having a Caesarean delivery for my first baby (who was also big, just under 11 lbs.).

Most Feared Outcomes: A lot of people think once you’ve had one baby by Caesarean section you have to have Caesarean deliveries for all your babies. But I did a lot of research and planning, conquered my fears and readjusted my mind set, then surrounded myself with people who also believed a normal, natural delivery was possible after Caesarean.

What Actually Happened: Many people thought it couldn’t be done, that I was crazy, never mind unrealistic, but I showed myself that you can make your goals and dreams become real, no matter how unrealistic they seem, if you’re determined to succeed…It does show we really can do anything, even when we’re told otherwise, if we’re persistent and believe in ourselves.

Tanesha D. H. Pittman

Speaker, Educator, Consumer Relations Expert (LinkedIn)

Risk Taken: I took a huge risk by developing and leading a Master’s of Science in Leadership degree program specifically designed for women at our institution. The program has yet to be fully embraced with adequate support.  Nevertheless, we commenced our inaugural cohort of 20 students in fall 2010. The women have already commented on how much they have learned and been able to apply immediately.  One student even stated, “My staff communicated they have noticed a difference in the way I manage, and they like the change.”

Denise K. Rago

Paranormal Vampire Romance Novelist (@DeniseKRago)

Risk Taken: Self-publishing my first novel, Immortal Obsession after spending the better part of one year querying agents with no success.

Most-Feared Outcome: Self-publishing company would rip me off. Rejection. Bad Reviews. Discovering that my book is mediocre. No sales. Somehow letting my friends and family down. Finding out I really can’t write. Financial ruin.

What Actually Happened: Very supportive experience with the self-publishing company and also connecting with an incredible company who not only designed my website but have been helpful in all aspects. My novel is getting good reviews and I am more confident doing guest posts. Book reviewers are now seeking me out to review my novel!  Learning more about self-promotion, which has helped to build my confidence in an area I have never been too confident in–technology. Doing what I have always wanted to do–write novels that encompass themes I find most compelling and important: art, romance, museums and the paranormal.

Lorraine Thompson

Freelance Copywriter and Blogger (@ WritersKitchen)

Risk Taken: A solo trip to India last September. You see, last spring I won a blogging contest run by an NGO, Ashoka’s Young Changemakers. The organization sent me to India as their Young Champions’ correspondent and live blogger for a Global Maternal Health Conference in Delhi. Perhaps a trip to India would be a risk-free event for others. But to me, a woman of a certain age, traveling alone, it was big thing. 

Most Feared Outcomes: Between running my business, raising three kids and taking care of home and animals, I hadn’t left the U.S. in more than 20 years…

I’m a bit of a control freak. I like to plan for every possible outcome before actually taking any action. Simply not possible with this trip. There was so much beyond my control. I had a large client project pending. Despite repeated efforts to define my Delhi blogging responsibilities, they remained largely undefined even as I left the U.S. I had to fly to Portland, Oregon—on the other side of the country—and drop my daughter at college the day before flying to India.

Hugging a backpack stuffed with a Macbook, Canon Rebel and voltage adapters, and guzzling Bloody Marys, I made the 16,000-mile, New York-to-Portland-to-Amsterdam-to Delhi journey.

Upon late-night arrival in Delhi, it seemed my worst paranoid fears came true: I was a stranger in a strange land. A crazy, middle aged American lady at the mercy of taxi drivers hawking Taj Mahal tours as we careened through Delhi’s pitted streets, dodging rickshaws and sacred cows.

What Actually Happened: After the watchman dropped me at my room, I listened hard for the nnngg of malarial mosquitoes. I longed for a drink of water but dared not drink from the homemade pottery jug next to my bed. I’d been traveling for 22 hours straight.

So I did what any sensible copywriter would do: Opened my laptop. And promptly blew out the complex’s electricity with my adapter. Talk about ugly Americans.

I’ll spare you the microscopic details of the rest of my passage to India. Suffice it to say, it was the most delightful, awe-inspiring, eye-opening experience I’ve had in decades.

I quickly grew to love and admire the Young Champions, social entrepreneurs who’d won nine-month Ashoka fellowships. These 14 incredible women and two men came from Iran, Nigeria, Oman, Canada, Ethiopia, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Kenya, Pakistan and the US. Doctors, midwifes, scientists, teachers and maternal health administrators, they are all under age 35. Mostly they are huge risk-takers, leaving home and families (three of the women left children with their husbands) to find innovative solutions to dire maternal global maternal health challenges.

I can’t begin to tell you how much these people inspire me. And to think, I’d never have had the huge privilege of meeting them if I hadn’t taken the little risk of getting on a plane to Delhi.

So, what risk have you taken? What outcome did you fear? And what actually happened?

Article written by Lindsey Donner for Moxy Magazine, February 2011. Image courtesy of Horia Varlan.