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Best Advice from a Magical Mentor

Magicians Only:  What was the best advice you ever received from another magician about magic or life in general?

Following up on my Blog Post from last week about magical mentors, we saw a lot of  names of great magicians that we learned from or would have liked to learn from.
So I’m curious what was the single best piece of advice
you ever got from another magician?

I’ll go first.

Many years ago when I was 22 years old and was just starting to perform at trade shows, a Pittsburgh comedy magician named Bob Miller saw me at a the local magic meeting and he said now that I was making a little money he wanted me to save up twenty thousand dollars and tell him when I had it.  That was a LOT of money… I had no idea why he suggested this… but I trusted Bob and I was pretty sure he was going to have me use the money to buy a bunch of new magic illusions that would make me a star like that new kid on the scene Doug Henning.

Three years later I cornered Bob at the monthly magic meeting and I told him…”I have the $20,000 in the bank.”  He confirmed that I did not need it for my general living expenses and then he wrote down an address on the back of his business card handed it to me and said:  “Next Friday meet me at this address in downtown Pittsburgh, I’m going to introduce you to my stockbroker and you are going to learn a new trick called The Magic of Compounding Interest.”

At that first meeting I remember Bob saying:  “Twenty thousand dollars is not a lot of money now… but if you invest it… it will double… and then it will double again… and again… and again… and it will keep on doing that as long as you don’t touch it… and forty years from now you will be really glad you did this.”   Bob Miller was right, that $20,000 did just what Bob said it would do.  What a valuable gift to a young magician just starting out.

Best Advice Ever.

Paul Gertner is nationally recognized speaker and corporate magician, whose honors include multiple Tonight Show appearances, performing at a presidential inauguration, and winning three international competitions. He can be hired as a trade show magician or keynote presenter. For more information, visit gertner.com.

Posted in Magicians Only on May 31, 2015 by Paul Gertner.