"Adversity is your greatest competitive advantage."

My family are refugees from Vietnam. They arrived in Australia in 1981, March 31st. My dad has always shared with me a simple concept - life is a miracle. He used to tell me:

"Son, do you know how ridiculous it is that you are alive? If your mother or I died in the war, you wouldn't be here. If your grandparents didn't meet, you wouldn't be here. Heck, lets take it back 50,000 generations. If a cave man ate a poisonous fruit and died, that's our entire bloodline vanished from this earth.. It took millions of years of serendipitous events for you to be here, and now that you are here, you are alive for 80 years on average. When you compare how long it took for you to get here versus how long you are here for.. it's like you are alive for 1 minute. It's a privilege to be alive. In this life of yours,remember to do what you love and jump as high as you can in life. As long as I am alive, I will forever be your net."

That right there is why I have achieved the things I have in life and why I have become the man I am today - Family. My drive to jump as high as I can in life comes from my family. 

All through my childhood, I watched my family build and grow businesses. They built; farms, grocery stores, take away diners, pharmacies and even commercial property. By the time I hit 13, I had all the entrepreneurial characteristics embedded deep in me. It was the year 2000 when eBay first started to become popular, and I remember buying so many different things from there and selling them to my friends for double the price! Needless to say, I didn't have too many friends. Not only this, I moved schools a total of 4 times. This happened because some of the kids wouldn't pay me after they bought music players from me, and I would then give the bully some money to rough them up a little. 

Long story short, I made it to university and studied accounting. With only 6 months left to go in my degree, I came home and told my parents I was going to quit and build a business on the internet to teach magic.... This is when things get really interesting! But I guess you'll have to wait for the keynote :)

My best friend, my brother, my team.

Our Story

The person on the top right is Lenny Tran, my brother from another mother! ... and well... he is from different fathers as well, which really makes this quote seem like a poor choice. However, I really feel like he is my brother. In 2011, I was doing work experience in an accounting firm, and I remember absolutely hating the job. I was in university not because I wanted to study accounting, but rather I was there because "it was the right thing to do". I had only 6 months left to go in my degree when I really couldn't stand it any longer! I knew that once I finished my degree, my family would pull some strings and get me to work in one of the big accounting firms, which really scared me to death. So I built up the courage to quit! And the rest... well the rest is history now. 

I decided that I was going to build an online business teaching magic, combining two of my biggest passions in life: teaching and magic. Teaching was my first preference going into university, but I switched it last minute because I knew that being an accountant was more desirable in my community. Building an online business teaching magic just seemed perfect to me, as I was able to combine two of my biggest passions: teaching and magic. I started the journey with the help of my father who was my only investor. I lost everything... 

Being an entrepreneur at heart I was pretty quick to solve this problem....

Anything is possible.

People often ask how I got into magic. I usually just give a quick reply, but it's only because I don't want to bore people to death with my long story... But I will bore you here! HA! 

*Story*

My whole magic journey began to really gain traction after I had a moment where the penny dropped and I finally understood what Robert Houdin (amazing magician) meant when he said:

"A magician is an actor playing the part of the magician."

After I began to understand the meaning behind this quote, I focused all my energy on studying the art of performance and not presentation. This is where my journey began.

Deception 2 [2015]

This was the 3rd year in a row we were running magic shows at the Fringe Festival and it was by far the best magic show we've put on yet. It was an incredible experience this year as we engaged with phenomenal magicians from Las Vegas (Kyle Marlett) to guide us on how to improve our shows. 

DETAILS

• 28 shows back to back

• Won Top Voted for Show

• Won Top Reviewed Show

We won these awards 3 years in a row!!

I am so happy that I was able to capture the moment we won the award :)

I have decided to take a break in 2016 from magic shows and focus on my speaking career. I've realised that magic is an incredibly powerful vehicle that can inspire and create
positive change in the world.