Self-employment

Tricks to success are to find your niche and your happiness

Magic moment

Ian Quick was a lawyer about five years ago when it occurred to him that he hated his job.

P.J. HARSTON
[ 2007-06-26 ]

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Ian Quick was a lawyer about five years ago when it occurred to him that he hated his job.

"It's something I studied for eight and a half years to become," he says from his office in Ottawa. "It's just one of those things where the practice and the theory are very, very different."

The day before his 30th birthday, he punched the corporate law clock for the last time and threw it all away to become ... a magician.

"What it's about is finding your niche and making yourself happy," says Quick.

MAGICIAN



A part-time magician for years, he decided that his calling was magic and he set out to make it his career.

He found a coach, Elliott Smith, who at the time had been in the magic business for about 30 years.

"Elliott took me under his wing. As a mentor, he helped me evolve from a competent amateur into a seasoned professional. I was ready to show the world my magic, but what I needed was an audience."

Quick found his audience, and has since become a seasoned professional himself, performing on casino stages and specializing in education shows.

"If things keep going the way they're going this year, I should be in the six-figure salary range," he says. "And listen to this -- as a lawyer I used to work 60 hours a week. Now I work 15 to 20 hours a week and make better money."

Quick and Smith recently collaborated on a book that explains the secrets to their successes.

Called Highway to Success -- The Entertainer's Roadmap to Business, the book is a step-by-step "Dummies-style" guide to making your talent as an entertainer work within the guidelines of a small business.

"We take you by the hand and show you how to do it," says Quick.

Boiled down, Highway to Success is an excellent small business tool -- not just for performers, but for anyone with a talent who wants to take that talent to the market.

And Quick's story, boiled down, is an inspiration for anyone stuck in a job whose heart lies in another, completely different passion.

"I think they say people have six career changes in their life," says Quick. "Most probably not quite as drastic as mine."



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