212. From Working Shoulder to Shoulder With The Likes of Elon Musk to Pickpocketing Them w/ Dan Chan

May 20, 2021

Our guest today, Dan Chan, is an internationally renowned, award-winning magician & mind-reader. In 2016 Buzzfeed profiled Dan with an article titled “Meet Silicon Valley's Favorite Magician.” Since then, Dan has performed for many of the world's largest corporations worldwide. In November of 2020, he was featured in Business Insider as the Billionaires magician.

His client list reads like a who's who of Silicon valley including Google, Apple. Facebook, intel, and oracle. But magic wasn’t always at the forefront of Dan’s career. Before he was a full-time magician, he was a pre-IPO employee at PayPal where he crossed paths with the likes of Elon Musk and many of the soon to be founders of Silicon Valleys most promising start ups. He had only vested 13 months of his stock options when he decided to give up the remaining 3/4 to pursue performing magic full time.

Since then he has performed over 5000 plus shows for many of the most recognizable companies in the world. Dan has an insatiable drive to become what he calls “legendary” which has spurred him into many money making and experiential adventures including working in Michelin rated restaurants, and, of all things, day trading.

In the first part of the interview we discuss his career trajectory, what he has learned from performing magic for high flying tech companies,  and his pivot to creating in a virtual world.

The conversation continues in the after show where we unexpectedly dive into a controversial conversation of what it means to have “enough” and when he will be content with his career goals. 

Don’t forget to listen to the very end.