We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Osmar Okuma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Osmar below.
Hi Osmar, so happy to have you on the platform with us today and excited to chat about your lessons and insights. Our ability to make good decisions can massively impact our lives, careers and relationships and so it would be very helpful to hear about how you built your decision-making skills.
As a musician, often times you have to make decisions on the spot without much time or hesitation. Working on projects with different people and under tight schedules means that most of the decisions have to be spontaneous but at the same time flexible enough to make slight adjustments or changes to these decisions. Having spent so much time working with other musicians and trying to decide things like how the music will be performed or what changes need to be made has helped me translate that to other means outside of the music world. Moreover, decisions have to be made in the middle of a performance, they need to be made quick without hesitation in order for the performance to keep moving smoothly. All of this is applicable to everyday decision making and its certainly something that I learned while learning my craft.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a musician and educator, originally from Peru, I am currently living and performing in Los Angeles and perform with several groups and projects ranging from recordings to live performances. I also work on a variety of different styles of music and at the moment working with a grammy award winning jazz big band called “The Afro Peruvian Jazz Orchestra” which performs at theaters and festivals around the country. I also produce and record for commercial or visual media and teach private lessons for music.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Discipline, listening and practice are the three skills that were the most important for me. I think that everyone can develop these skills by simply applying them in their daily routines and by being conscious or proactive at applying them in different parts of their lives. Its important to practice whatever you want to be good at because no one is born with talent, skills must be developed by working on them.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think its more important to work on the areas that you feel are the weakest. Its important to be well rounded and be able to work out the areas that are not strong. It has personally helped me a lot in my career because it allowed me to work on different projects that are totally new to me and it expanded my toolbox so that I have more options available as an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: amku_music
- Youtube: @AmkuMusic
- SoundCloud: Amku
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/amku_music?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Image Credits
Beshar Al Azzawi
