Intersection #7 of 10: To clearly see both “inside the frame” and “outside the frame” to avoid blind spots for potential failure.
By Mitch Praver, The CEO Magician (www.theceomagician.com)
For successful magicians as well as successful CEOs, it is so important to be able to see clearly both “inside the frame” and “outside the frame” to avoid blind spots for potential failure. Sometimes, the solution to a problem lies “inside the frame”, where you can evaluate (in the mirror or in video recording) the current situation, limitations and constraints, and identify opportunities for improvement. Being able to see “outside the frame” encourages creativity, forward-thinking new solutions and approaches that can lead to performance breakthroughs.

Magicians emphasize the elements of direction/misdirection and are keenly aware of viewing angles and blind spots “inside the frame”. Virtually all books and videos on magic pertain to execution “inside the frame”, but magic’s true impact occurs “outside the frame” – enhancing their presence, communication skills, timing and interaction with the audience – in the minds of the spectators, not in the hands of the magician.

Therefore, successful CEOs and successful magicians need to trust their eyes, trust their ears and trust their observations and instincts to make informed decisions about their routines or about their businesses to avoid blind spots that – if ignored – could negatively affect their livelihoods.

Enter “The Mandela Effect”: just when you thought it was safe to trust your ears and eyes to see “inside the frame”, “The Mandela Effect”: triggers a cognitive mis-function that creates false collective memory – when a large group of people actually remember an event a certain way; they all remember the same thing…but incorrectly!

Perhaps “The Mandela Effect” has impacted has fooled your long-term memory of certain events by:

1. Fooling Your Eyes
a. You probably remember the Monopoly man, Rich Uncle Pennybags, who wore a distinctive monocle. But, if you go back and check, you’ll see that he has never been depicted wearing a monocle.
b. In the Fruit of the Loom logo, there was all delicious-looking fruit coming out of a cornucopia. In reality, there was no cornucopia at all.
c. Do you remember Curious George’s yellow tail? Or was it brown? The answer is that in all of the Curious George books written by H.A. Rey, George never had a tail at all.

2. Fooling Your Ears
a. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the evil queen famously says, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, who ‘s the fairest of them all? Or did she? The actual line is “Magic mirror on the wall.”. And, remember those dwarves singing, “Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go”? If you re-watch the movie, they are going home from work they go, not off to work.
b. In Sally Field’s now famous 1984 Academy Awards acceptance speech for Best Actress, she is often quoted verbatim as saying “You like me! You really like me!”. The line has been repeated over and over again, but the surprising thing about it is that is not what she actually said. The actual quote is, “And I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me.”
c. Remember that famous line said by the legendary actor Humphrey Bogart in the movie “Casablanca”? Some claim to be able to hear him speak such words…but they were actually said in the movie by his co-star, actress Ingrid Bergman.

There have been other famous examples of audiences witnessing magic they can’t explain (at that time), to create a false memory of tricks that seem impossible. That’s because they really are impossible. Take, for another example, Hindu Magic, as performed by Indian street magicians:
1. The Indian Rope Trick: where a rope seemingly rises by magic into the air, and a boy or magician climbs it, only to disappear into thin air. The trick has been greatly exaggerated over time. Without giving anything away, It is simply performed using a combination of mechanical devices and clever misdirection.
2. The Snake Charmer: the “charmer” appears to hypnotize a snake by playing a flute. The snake actually follows the movement of the flute, not the sound.

A final example are the “miracles” in The Bible, which could only be explained (at that time) other than by acts of divine intervention. Since that time, thousands of years later, through the evolution of science, we have the ability to see more clearly “inside the frame” of what may have occurred such as: turning water into wine: using a decanter or pitcher with two compartments; parting the Red Sea, explained by a natural tidal phenomenon of a strong wind at a shallow point in the sea, rather than a supernatural event; walking on water: on submerged rocks or sandbars, or turning a rod into a snake: either paralyzed in hibernation to be stiff as a rod, or cooling the snake in cold water to slow its metabolism.

CEOs need to continually ask themselves and their executive teams, “What if what is, isn’t?” Maybe magicians should ask that same question, too.