Hey, Jacob here.
Are you excited to get thinking differently, my fellow innovators?
(that didn’t quite come out as cool as I wanted it to)
Anyhow…
As we promised today is the day we try to blow your minds!
The quote we chose for today comes from none other but the world famous Joshua Jay.
CRAZY STORY time…
(that we’ll probably never send out in our ‘normal’ daily emails)
The other day we were on a call with Andi Gladwin, and randomly in the middle of our chat he says:
“Can I just bring a friend in?”
Our answer was of course: “Yes.”
And that friend was…you guessed it…Joshua Jay.
During that discussion we were actually able to bring up this exact quote from Josh, which we found deep in the transcript of an interview he conducted:
“surprisingly there are as much magicians as they are other people who are doing interesting thing in their own fields. It’s much less interesting because I kind of see it as a dead end. I mean, I’m always really inspired if another magician does something wonderful or beautiful, but I don’t want to copy him or her. I want to do my own thing. I’m much more interested in like, “What did Steve Jobs do that’s interesting and how can I be him for our industry?” Or, “What did Jim Henson do in his industry that really turned everything on its head and how can I do that for ours?” Those are more of the questions that I ask. I mean, I’m inspired by people that revolutionize their own field, and what lessons can I take and apply?”
You might have to read this quote once or twice to get everything out of it—I know I did.
But this is our first lesson and also the most basic one…
‘Lift’ lessons from other hobbies and apply them to magic.
Here’s the exercise that will help you do so:
- Look at ONE hobby other than magic you’re good at
(and don’t tell me you don’t have any other hobbies, even if it’s just taking the dog for a walk, that counts!)
- Then think of ONE lesson you’ve learned from that hobby.
For instance, I have a dog.
Here’s a lesson I learned: if you don’t take your dog for a walk every day—it’s not good.
Right?
Now, the next step is…
- See how we can apply that to magic
Well, if you don’t practice everyday… it’s not good right?
And it doesn’t even have to be that long—maybe just 20 minutes (if you have a poodle like I do, it only takes that long to take her on a walk.)
And here’s another example….
Hobby: dog walking
Lesson: Sometimes I can’t take her on a walk—but I can chase her around the living room.
Lesson translated to magic: So perhaps sometimes you don’t have a deck of cards on you, but you can sure as heck practice the stack in your head right?
Anyway, that’s just one example with something that’s not even a ‘hobby hobby’ so I’m sure you can come up with much bigger lessons from your own life.
So, that’s it.
Nothing huge, but I promise it can have big results.
If you have any major breakthroughs, make sure to email me at jacob@thedailymagician.com
Your friend,
Jacob
The Daily Magician Inner Circle.