What makes magic happen? Hard work others might never see

A legendary magician breaks his normal silence to share the focus required for 'unreasonable' success

Is there anything more rooted in distraction than magic? A magician's entire craft relies on ensuring you aren't focused on where the action is actually happening. Their goal is to misdirect your attention so they can amaze you with the result.

One of magic’s greatest duos is Penn & Teller. For five decades, they have entertained crowds in Las Vegas and beyond, called out “Bullsh*t” and dared fellow magicians to “Fool Us.” All of this occurs with Teller—true to his name—hardly uttering a single word.

The Philadelphia native occasionally grants interviews, such as his 2012 sit-down with Esquire magazine. Something one of the kings of distraction said resonates deeply regarding the focus required to truly master a craft:

"Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."

The iceberg of success

Performance is a gift, but longevity is built on the work. This applies far beyond the magician's stage. You can have all the talent in the world, but it takes relentless, undistracted effort to make that talent bloom.

We see this in the legends:

• Kobe Bryant: In the gym at 5 a.m., taking hundreds of shots before the sun rose.

• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: Striving to be the "hardest worker in the room" in a constant battle of "You vs. You."

• Ben Franklin: Our fellow Philadelphian who balanced inventions, politics, and philosophy through sheer industriousness.

  
  

Refining the 'green light' moments

You have to dedicate yourself to the things that matter. The work you do when no one is watching is the greatest way to ensure success in what I call the "green light" moments. Basically, practice might not make perfect, but it definitely makes you better. (Sorry to our guy Allen Iverson, but you were wrong on that one—we are talking about practice.)

When we eliminate the distractions of seeking immediate praise or shortcuts, we find the "magic" that Teller describes: the extraordinary results of "unreasonable" time spent on a single goal.