“Creating Business Magic” written by David Morey, Eugene Burger, and John E. McLaughlin

Reviewed by Business View Magazine Associate Editor, Lorie Steiner

The book’s full title is Creating Business Magic: How the Power of Magic Can Inspire, Innovate, and Revolutionize Your Business. If that isn’t enough to catch your attention, the cover also boasts the quote: “Explains how thinking like a magician can take you and your endeavors to new heights of success.” So sayeth, David Copperfield… yes, that David Copperfield – unparalleled master of magic and illusion, and an extraordinary businessperson, himself, who has parlayed his talent and intuitive understanding of the human thought process into global recognition. And riches. The fact that Copperfield acknowledges this book in his foreword as “a solid, sparkling argument that imagination empowers the real magician inside us all” is a testament to the unique journey awaiting the reader in the pages ahead.

A collaboration of highly successful leaders from diverse business sectors, Creating Business Magic offers a wealth of insights and analogies from David Morey, one of America’s leading strategic consultants; Eugene Burger (who sadly passed away during publication), author of 15 bestsellers for the magic trade; and John E. McLaughlin, former Acting Director of the CIA. The common denominator: they are all professional magicians. As such, the trio deftly brings to the stage proven examples from long-past, recent history, and current times – Apple, IBM, Houdini, World Wars I and II, the telephone, the smart phone, Brylcreem vs. Vitalis, Lockheed’s ‘skunkworks’ – and highlights the tenets of business magic that fed their ultimate success, evolution, or demise.

The reader is encouraged to “work backward from imagination” and “think different.” As every garage start-up entrepreneur knows well, “innovation happens outside and along the periphery,” and success doesn’t always happen the first time around. Using the book’s nine strategies, outlined in fascinating detail with more than a hint of bold, persons at any level in any industry can learn to: Forget reality; Reboot aspiration; Imagine first; Disorganize innovation; Cheat pre-emptively; Redirect your audience; Grab the dialogue; Overcome and prevail; and Empower belief. Refreshing, right?

There is really nothing mystical about the process, perhaps a little misdirection, or indeed targeted direction, to lead your audience where you want them to go. Show them what you want them to see. Creating Business Magic puts the focus on defining yourself, your business, and your future without getting mired down in the mundane, “that’s the way we’ve always done it” approach. The authors have laid out the guidelines, challenged the status quo, and produced one helluva of a good read. No illusions, here. Your perceptions might change, your imagination may stir, and if you follow the path, you can access the unlimited focus and energy of the entrepreneur. And isn’t that the magic we all yearn to find again?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David Morey, Chairman and CEO of DMG Global and Vice Chairman of Core Strategy Group, is one of America’s leading strategic consultants—and one of the most sought-after speakers, performers, and magicians.  For over three decades, he has studied magic and performed around the world, including at President Barack Obama’s Inaugural ball. The award-winning coauthor of The Underdog Advantage and The Leadership Campaign, Morey has advised a who’s who of Fortune 500 CEOs and companies and many of the world’s top political leaders, including five Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Eugene Burger was dubbed by Magic Magazine as “one of the 100 most influential magicians of the 20th century.” He wrote 15 best-selling books for the magic trade and his deep understanding of magic won him four awards from Hollywood’s legendary Magic Castle. The book, Creating Business Magic, is dedicated to Mr. Burger, who passed away during publication.

John E. McLaughlin was formerly Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both at the CIA and today, McLaughlin draws on the principles of magic to teach intelligence analysis and management. He is currently a senior research fellow in the Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University.

David Copperfield, who wrote the foreword for Creating Business Magic is the first living illusionist to be honored by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has won over 21 Emmy awards for his ground-breaking television specials and currently performs over 600 sold-out shows every year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He holds 11 Guinness World Records and has sold more tickets than any other solo entertainer in history, with ticket sales in the billions—more than Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, and Elvis.

CREATING BUSINESS MAGIC

David Morey, Eugene Burger, John E. McLaughlin

ISBN: 9781633537347

US Release Date: May 15, 2018