Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Chris Osuch

Chris Osuch shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
I have to go with energy. I’ll say Integrity is a close second though. Energy to me means: enthusiasm and working hard. These are skills that are very hard to teach. It’s a mindset and form of conditioning that only you, can impose and really embed within yourself.

A hardworking individual, who’s not willing to quit, will beat out a very talented, not hard working person, every time. Obviously you still need to have the talent, but the hard work will get you that talent, and a better work ethic. Integrity I say is a close second, because you have to keep to your word and do the work. Your reputation is everything, no matter the industry you’re in.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Chris Osuch and I am the vocalist for a metalcore band named Seagrave. We’re from Oshawa, Ontario Canada, We are unsigned and completely self managed at the time of this interview.

We’ve been grinding with Seagrave now, for about 3 years. Thankfully every year has grown and gotten us bigger and closer to our goals. All of us come from past bands, which has given us, great individual strengths, which culminate within Seagrave camp.

We all have the same goal in mind and I’m very lucky to have 3 other amazing musicians by my side, that are just as driven and focused.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I wouldn’t say there’s 1 light bulb moment, but there are definitely some things I’ve learned, which drive me.

No ones coming to save you. Whether the goal you have is to be: rich/successful, own a business, be a full time artist, or even just to have a family and a quiet life. No one is going to make that happen for you, except you. Make small goals to build to the big one, and put in the work.

Excuses and the blame game; We all have times where we make excuses, I’m guilty of it too, obviously. You just can’t let that become your whole life. Everything isn’t always someone else’s or some external forces fault. Have some accountability. Mistakes happen, it’s fine. Move forward and do better.

Lastly, I would say. Don’t care what everyone thinks. I still get people saying it’s ridiculous to be a 34 year old, trying to make a band happen, or when I did a career change in my 30’s it was a dumb move. Don’t listen to those people, no matter what you’re trying to do. Those people will 9/10 times be way too scared to try to go for anything and will be regretful about their life, when they’re older.

When did you last change your mind about something important?
My career change. I was a chef for the first 13 years of my adult life. It was all I knew, and I assumed it would be my entire life. I started as a line cook, working the deep fryers at a Shoeless Joe’s when I was 18. By time I left the industry at 31, I had worked for a celebrity chef and ran my own kitchen as an executive chef. I was so sure that was my life path and it was mostly my entire personality, I lived and breathed food and the hospitality industry. I got burned out, and started resenting the industry and what I had spent my time doing.

When I said was starting to look at a career change to the music industry and social media/marketing, while having only been self taught, with no formal education, everyone thought I was crazy, maybe even I thought I was crazy to some extent. Here we are 3 years later though, and I’m making more and in a position, that the equivalent in the culinary world, took me 8-9 years to build to.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
I would say something that I mentioned earlier with you and that is hard work beats talent.

As I said, I’m not saying talent isn’t at all part of the equation, but mixed with a hard work ethic, determination and not letting your failures define you, will beat a very talented individual with a lazier work ethic.

I find a lot of people disagree with me on this, saying talent is everything and you shouldn’t try or throw your life into something unless you’re already incredibly talented. To me, that’s just wrong and falls into the excuses aspect I mentioned before as well.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Anything to do with Seagrave, for the most part. Of course, we see some benefits from our growth and work right now. However, most bands in our genre don’t really see the full-time, real success until about 10 years in. This is something I find so many bands don’t grasp.

Even in our third year now, there’s times we play to 4 people in a crowd. It happens a lot more rarely now, and we’re incredibly thankful for that, but you can’t think that’s only the first couple months in this thing. I find a lot of other bands also talk a big game of where they want to be, but their work shows differently. As I mentioned before, you can’t just expect people to hand the success to you.

When we started out, I didn’t know much about booking shows/tours, release plans, or social media for a band. I’m not saying I’m a complete wiz at it, I’m still learning every day. Now though? I handle all our show/tour booking, I’ve made so many contacts that have helped us, and we’re constantly complimented on our release roll outs and social media. I can also thank our bass player Ali for being a huge help with that and learning more on these topics with me. Don’t know how to do it? LEARN. There’s nothing stopping you from that.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Shae Rose
William Lezma
Tera Hay

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Betting on the Brightside: Developing and Fostering Optimism

Optimism is like magic – it has the power to make the impossible a reality

Highlighter Series
What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?

There is no one path – to success or even to New York (or Kansas).

Leadership Development
Finding & Living with Purpose

Over the years we’ve had the good fortunate of speaking with thousands of successful entrepreneurs,