Chad Bourquin

The entire trajectory of my life changed at age seventeen when a band came through my high school and played a concert. All it took was my buddy turning to me and saying, “why don’t you learn to play guitar and we will start a band?” So that’s what I did.

Six months later, I got replaced by a much better player and that was the moment I committed to becoming the best guitar player I could. Two years or 3-5 hours practice per night landed me a position in a touring band. We performed for 4-6 nights per week for 4 years before the singer walked out leaving my dad’s words of “you can’t make any money in that industry” ringing in my head. “You need a back up plan.”

I spent the next 15 years in 3 different backup plans before finally hitting my end. None of them ever became successful. I will never forget the moment, sitting in my studio when I made this declaration, “If I’m going to go down, I’m going to at least do it doing something I love.”

That was the day my dream began again. Today, I am doing everything I love doing. I get paid to play, write and record music as well as, inspiring others through the Dream Big Series.