I personally have never understood why work has to be fun. I have always been driven. Work being fun never occurs to me.

I am not saying anyone is wrong here mind you. It is just a different way than I understand.

I certainly understand wanting to be home with your baby! And congratulations.

This is interesting to me as I don't share the same perspective as Tom and Danny. To be clear, I respect their (your) perspectives even if they differ.

If you didn't get into the magic business (or any business) to have fun, why did you? If I wanted work that I didn't enjoy, I would have stayed in the "real jobs" that I quit (because I got bored with them). I wanted adventure, fun, time flexibility, more time with family, an artistic expression, control over my own life, and make a living doing what I love to do.

Work doesn't have to be fun but I do WANT it to be fun and therefore have pursued work that IS fun. Luckily it has been fun or else I likely would have moved on by now. Life is too short to not enjoy your job (in my opinion anyway).

My parents had the "work isn't supposed to be fun" attitude but it's not an attitude I wanted to adopt.

Josh, I built my business while my kids were babies. Make sure to spend time with your kids because, ultimately, family is the most important thing there is. There is a way to attain work/life balance and I encourage you to continue to explore to find a method that works for you. Good luck and have fun!

I am driven by far more than fun. There are many aspects of what I do I don't enjoy in the least. Work is a means to an end. Nothing more.

Again for me.

Scott, I'm sure we don't differ as much as it looks. Some can do both, smile on the outside and curse on the inside or Vice versa. lol

Danny said it well with Driven. I've always loved the challenge of work. While I hated doing those little boring must do things over and over, I did enjoy knowing that success was just over the hill.

Yes Josh, congratulations on the new baby. And do spend as much time as possible with the family. Some parents just don't seem to realize how short a childhood is for a child. I'm almost seventy and I have watched many children grow up and move on, and in today's fast paced world time gets by even faster. Life is short, very much shorter than most think.

Tom

I got less money, less respect, less satisfaction, and less fun from electrical engineering, but it was an engineering job, and everybody was happy having me sit behind a desk but me.

I am also driven by all the people who are waiting for me to fail because no one can actually support themselves by working only a couple hours a week. So I put in 12 hour a days to make it look easy.

I am driven to create a great lifestyle for myself and my family which includes work, family, play, etc. It also may depend upon what one may define as "success" (that thing Tom said might be just beyond the hill). Money doesn't motivate me but creating a GREAT lifestyle does motivate me (yes, money plays a part of course but only a part).

Thanks for the chat guys No disrespect intended. I enjoy learning from others. And yes Tom we may be very much the same but speak in different terminology.

As Al illustrated, there is more than one way to make a living and ultimately it is our choice in how we want to do it. I've made my choices just as you all have for yourself as well.

Work is what I do in order to afford being able to have fun.

Here is my advice on daycares. Don't bother with e-mails and don't bother with phone calls. Too much hassle. Simply compile a mailing list of names and addresses of the centres. Send out one flyer only to them all. That really is all you need to do. Not a postcard. A flyer. No introductory letter necessary. One sheet of paper is all that is needed. And send a different flyer 3 or 4 times a year to all the addresses. Direct Mail is still alive and works well. You have to time the mailing. That is of vital importance. One at the beginning of the year, one in April or May and one in October. Possibly one at the end of August too.

Day cares are not big corporations with secretaries and personal assistant screening the mail. Your letter WILL get opened. And by the person in charge. I wouldn't bother wasting time trying to find the name of the person. You don't even have to address it to "The Director". In fact you probably shouldn't because then it looks like junk mail. Just send it to the name of the daycare and the address. It will get there.

If you are frightened by spending too much money straight away then send out a test mailing of say 100 to 200 flyers first. I bet if you do it right you will get around 5 gigs from sending out 200 flyers. If you do then send out 1000.

There. Another marketing problem solved.

And I believe Danny is right. Once you do magic for a living you will probably have to get your fun elsewhere. Vernon said that if you do magic professionally a lot of the fun goes out of it and that is why he remained an amateur although he did have brief professional stints. He was right. If you want magic to be a hobby then let it be a hobby and forget trying to make money out of it. But once you decide to go after the money then you will have to get your fun elsewhere. Perhaps take up fishing. But magic is more or less out. That is because your mentality changes.

That is a very common perspective Danny.

My vision is to integrate my interests, hobbies, and passions into my work to such a degree that my work is among my greatest joys. I've been doing better at this as time goes on. The best example is my ultra-running passion and the integration into my programs. I go running a lot even during my "work time" as it directly benefits my products and presentation and thus my clients. Then I share my stories and lessons with clients and they love it. But this is just me sharing what I love - like talking with friends. There are other examples (family balance, my cheerleading, my business experiences, etc) where I integrate myself into my product but I think you more or less get the point.

I can sincerely say that I would still be doing what I'm doing today even if I no longer needed the money. I do realize that I am an outlier.

Again, I appreciate the perspective of others. My only point would be: there is only one best career approach - whatever is best for YOU the individual.

I see similarities between Josh's position and my position several years back. It's not easy to navigate all of the options available to us. I wanted to offer a view to be considered.

I choose to make other things my joy. Family and such.

There is no greater joy. We are in agreement that work is only a small part of a full and wonderful life.

Which is why enjoyment simply is not part of the equation for me.

This is a very interesting topic thus far.

I love doing kid shows, but I won't lie it does take its toll on you, especially being away almost 10 hours every Saturday and Sunday. At the end of the day I view kid shows as a way I am able to fulfill my dream of performing professionally.

I do think it's time for a slow change though.

This thread, like I said, has become quite interesting to hear everyone's views on work vs. art.

My thoughts are that (at least with kid shows) my marketing is on "somewhat" autopilot. My biggest advertising is word of mouth and Adwords. With Adwords I do about and hour a week of maintenance and the word of mouth comes from handouts at shows. I also enjoy doing the mundane tasks like emails, phones, and Adwords and website stuff.

Josh

I guess I'm lucky, I thoroughly enjoy my work as a kids' entertainer. The thought of adult gigs, these days, is quite abhorrent to me. That would mean working late into the night Fridays and Saturdays, a lot of travelling to major cities, and almost certainly earning less overall.

I do know of some magicians who charge up to £2000 a show, but frankly, those that do that, seem to get very little work in the current economic climate.

Whereas the Birthday market is as buoyant as ever, and with more and more newbies on the scene, experienced entertainers are able to charge considerably more.

I certainly enjoy finishing work by 5 or 6pm at the latest, and having the choice to work very locally, if I want.

Personally I regard entertaining adults as a far more demanding job. I know of entertainers who spend weeks away from home, as they travel around the country, living out of a suitcase, and staying in grubby bed-and-breakfasts, for them it's "life on the road".

Sure thing. We can agree to disagree. I'm going to go enjoy my work while you do not Have a great day!

See nobody said I didn't. I said it is not a requirement. I don't enjoy aspects of it.