About
Take Risks Be Happy helps people live a more interesting life. We also share original writing about international destinations and lifestyle pieces of interest to travelers and entrepreneurs.
I spent years breaking into the freelance writing business. Along the way, I would email other creatives, trying to figure out how I could make a living as a writer. Eventually I realized that creatives needed a resource with knowledge, encouragement, and tips to make a living. I also realized that many people with stable jobs dream of taking a big career or life risk but don’t know where to get started. I started Take Risks Be Happy to help other freelancers, travelers, and entrepreneurs live the creative life.
The Team
Alex Webb
Alexander Webb, founder of Take Risks Be Happy, is a freelance writer and author passionate about creativity, entrepreneurship, and international travel. He has written for the New York Times, Wired, and is the sole listed author of an entire special issue of National Geographic. He is the founder of Poetry Culture, a stationary and apparel brand, and co-created Come Write With Us, an online writing and creativity platform, which offers courses on writing and creativity. He started The Studies Show, a video, article, and video podcast show, in February 2023. He was shortlisted for the Bracken Bower Prize in 2015 and 2016. He has lived in China, Korea, Japan, the United States, and Australia.
Brandon Belknap
I’m a storyteller and photographer who drinks all over the world, but mostly in Houston, TX. I tend to sleep better in hotels than I do in my own home, so I try to travel and write everything down. I’d like to think I have a preternatural ability for finding dives and characters in this world and sharing them in a unique way. Like everyone, I struggled to find a calling – more appropriately, I didn’t know which direction to walk in, so I started exploring anything that caught my interest. This led me to writing and photography. With my stories, I hope that I can give you, the reader, the audacity to take those first steps in any direction you want to go.
Newsletter
What we look for in features and advice
Being a creative, artist, freelancer or entrepreneur is hard. Often, one of the hardest parts is simply getting started. There is a lot of advice about success out there–but much of that advice comes from fantastically successful people. On the surface this makes sense, because we all want to be successful. However, extreme success is rarely replicable and, moreover, much of the advice given is not applicable to those starting at the very bottom.
While we are interested in hearing from people at all stages of the creative process, we are mostly interested in learning how to break into paid work or success. We want people who still remember what it was like to struggle. People who are involved in risk taking at a personal level, not those who delegate or are removed from key decisions.
Hearing how someone went from dreamer to small business owner is much more interesting and useful to beginners than hearing how a manager expanded a 50 chain coffee shop to a 500 chain shop. Hearing how a beginning artist overcame struggles to find venues to sell her art, to show her film, to make a living doing what she loved is much more valuable than hearing how an A-list director made his latest blockbuster.
This doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in interviewing or featuring the tremendously successful–we are. (Leonardo DiCaprio, call me) It is simply that all features need to provide real advice to those looking to make the step from idea to execution.
In short, Take Risks Be Happy focuses on the most important stage of turning dreams into reality–the start.
Want to be featured–or know someone who should be?
Contact us at hello@takerisksbehappy.com — after you read what we are looking for.
Want to write a guest post?
Are you an emerging artist, musician, freelancer or creative? Have a great story about living abroad? Have a great business that you want to share with the world? We want to hear from you. If you can provide advice for readers interested in the creative life, international travel, or awesome products, send us an email at hello@takerisksbehappy.com
Want to be a regular contributor?
If you are a writer or creative with a fresh take on international travel, entrepreneurship, or have great tips for artists and creatives, get in touch! Regular contributors will benefit from having an author profile at the bottom of their posts, in addition to being able to add the credential to their resume. This is for people who are serious about contributing multiple posts per month. Get in touch at hello@takerisksbehappy.com
Important Note: We believe in paying writers, and one day we hope to pay contributors for articles, but this is not possible currently as this site operates at a loss. However, given that exposure and experience are valuable to creatives, writers, and artists, there is a compelling reason for the right candidates to share their knowledge or creative work here. Writers will be able to link to a personal page or twitter account to gain publicity, and will gain clips to use as a reference for future jobs.
Affiliate links
Take Risks Be Happy is 100% ad-free. However, we occasionally include Amazon affiliate links to products that we recommend anyway. If you decide to make a purchase using these links, a small percentage of the purchase price will support the site. If you are planning on shopping on Amazon and want to support the site, you can shop on Amazon using this link.
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What I Learned Writing 1,000 Words A Day For A Year – Come Write With Us