Existing studies emphasize the positive role of manager humility in managing organizations, but there remains a lack of clarity of humble managers’ willingness to take risks. By conducting empirical research on the correlation between manager humility and strategic risk-taking in the context of negative attainment discrepancy of performance, this paper discovers that humble managers can significantly enhance strategic risk-taking when a firm’s performance falls substantially below its aspiration. The results of the mechanism test indicate that humble managers intensify problemistic search activities to enhance strategic risk-taking with negative attainment discrepancy of performance. Further research suggests that humble managers are more likely to engage in strategic risk-taking with persistent negative attainment discrepancy of performance. When performance falls substantially below social aspirations, humble managers are motivated to increase strategic risk-taking compared to their historical aspirations. The findings offer valuable insights into the risk-taking willingness of humble managers.