A story of success and of how life gives opportunities, and how you sometimes need to take them. In a few months, or even less than a year, your life can change beyond recognition. Everything can go according to the worst scenario you never expected, but then fate will give you a chance if you take it. Fate can also throw you into events you could never imagine in your life, things that seemed impossible to happen, like war. Yet fate can be different, and within a few months from the worst moment of your life you can find yourself in the best and most successful one.
This is the story of Roman Basiuk and how, in just six months, he went from zero and changed his life. He is an ordinary Ukrainian guy who loved cars and ran his automotive YouTube channels. He did not have money or connections to access sports, rare or exotic cars, so he used other people’s videos, made compilations, comparisons and offered expert opinions on his channels.
On 24 February 2022 his story changed completely. War began in Ukraine, his home country. At that time there were many volunteers for the Ukrainian army, so there was no real possibility to join. Roman turned to volunteering and went to Europe to collect aid for people in Ukraine who needed it. He volunteered in Poland, Sweden, Germany and other countries. Over time, the European Union and state organisations took over most of these functions, and people who simply collected items became less needed
After that, Roman moved to the United States and began to think about his future career. At first, not everything worked out. Moving is hard. A new place, a new continent, a new country, a language to learn. Roman set to work, learnt quickly, sorted his documents and picked up a camera. His inspiration, his eye and ideas found a response in Portland’s automotive community, and within a few months he received an offer from Grand Prix Motors. Thanks to this he could photograph, film and work with sports and exotic cars.
This is how he got the job of his dreams. He was no longer just editing other people’s videos about races and drivers’ stories. Roman now had access to sports cars himself. He filmed them, drove them, learnt to drive them properly, and photographed them. His vision brought strong results on Instagram and YouTube, and his videos began to gain views. In this way he was noticed by well-known photographers, car collectors and others. His videos started to perform well on Instagram at a local level, and he received an invitation to Monterey Car Week, the most prestigious annual gathering of cars from around the world, from important vintage vehicles to the newest and most striking hypercars such as Koenigsegg, Pagani and Bugatti.
Roman attended The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, and the famous and prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance. In this way, only half a year after the worst day of his life, he found himself at the world’s most prestigious concours, photographing cars he had never dreamed he would see in person. He was photographing cars he had previously only seen on a screen and on YouTube, where he used to review them on his channel. Fate gave him a chance to do it in real life.
From a regular photographer who took street photos and pictures of friends’ cars, he became a high-level social media professional, creating and filming at the most prestigious events in the world. This story may sound unreal, but it truly happened. In just half a year from the worst day in Roman’s life, he found himself in a kind of paradise, where his dreams led him. He arrived in a place he had never expected to be, and saw cars he had only ever watched through a screen.
Roman’s journey shows how quickly life can change when passion meets opportunity. From the uncertainty of war to photographing some of the world’s rarest cars at the most prestigious events, his story is a reminder that the lowest moments can sometimes lead to the brightest chapters.
It’s also proof that hard work, resilience, and creativity can open doors that once felt impossible to reach.
