To Chris Botti, entrepreneurship is as much about being able to take a risk as anything else. It’s something the Grammy Award-winning composer and musician has done his entire life, from playing Portland clubs as a teenager to touring the world with his trumpet.

“If I would have sat and thought about the odds stacked against me, I never would have done this,” Botti said. “Maybe entrepreneurship means a big dose of crazy.”

Botti grew up in Corvallis and started playing trumpet at age 9, inspired by fellow Oregonian and Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen. It wasn’t until a few years later when he heard Miles Davis’ “My Funny Valentine” for the first time that Botti was hooked. Chris Botti

“It impacted me like a lightning bolt,” he said. “I thought, I want to be a trumpet player for the rest of my life.”

Botti—inspired by his brother’s cross country training techniques—started practicing every day and logging his times. He went more than two years practicing every single day. One night his mother took him to a small club in Corvallis to see famed Portland jazz musician Ron Steen. Botti’s mother asked Steen if her son could sit in, and Steen obliged.

“Most musicians would have said ‘Lady, you’re crazy’,” Botti said. “He not only let me sit in, but invited me to join his group.”

Botti began going from Corvallis to Portland as often as he could to play clubs. After high school, he left for the University of Indiana before moving to New York. From there, his career took off quickly. He toured with artists such as Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell, but Botti said his biggest opportunity came when Sting offered him a spot in his band.

“Sting invited me to join his group in 1999 with the promise, ‘Chris, give me two years of your career, we’ll tour the world and have a blast and I’ll break the sound of your trumpet to the whole world,’” Botti remembered.

The promise came to be, and since then Botti has become the world’s largest selling jazz instrumentalist. This past year he won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album for “Impressions.” Botti said he has no plans to slow down his touring schedule, which keeps him on the road from his home in Southern California around 300 days a year. When you’ve made your dreams come true, why stop?

“I’m living my goal right now,” Botti said. “I’m a trumpet player.”