Managing the Stress of Starting Your Own Business Stop spieling off platitudes about risk. Instead, develop a strategy to offset the oof, ugh and ouch! that can tag along with a risk-taking life.

Seattle-based architect Milan Heger was on the edge of the abyss. Before the economic downturn, Heger had a thriving business designing residential and commercial properties and, in 2005, launched a furniture line. His work appeared in store windows and magazine articles. Then came the Great Recession and the housing bust. Heger's contracts vanished. He had to cut his staff from five to one. By 2009, he was waking up nights in a cold sweat, worrying about his family's future.

"The biggest pressure is the status of my mortgage, college payments," Heger says. "I felt not like a failure, but like a father who wasn't doing what he was supposed to do. I'd sit in the car in the driveway and not want to get out. It's hard and continues to be hard."