Independent Banker - March 2019 - 68

weaving tricks into his performances to illustrate his
lessons. His message is compelling, helped enormously by
personal charisma, approachability and a very quirky sense
of humor.
The son of immigrants who escaped a war-torn Vietnam,
Giang grew up in Adelaide, a city of 1.2 million on
Australia's south coast. Over the years, his parents were
engaged in numerous enterprises, from grocery stores and
people at school would be like, 'Wow, that was amazing!'
So I got this attention that I didn't normally get. I was like,
'What is this? It feels so good.' The moment that happened,
I went into a spiral of obsession and couldn't stop it. "
A decade or so later, he had another of those aha
moments. He was working as an intern at an accounting
fi rm and was performing a trick for colleagues when a
senior partner walked in. Giang recalls the incident vividly.
" He said, 'Look, in six months' time,
one of two things will happen: You're
going to quit or I'm going to fi re you.'
He showed me his hands. On his right
hand, he had really bad arthritis. His
" Be conscious of what you want. The biggest
problem people have is lack of clarity. They don't
know what they want, so they're not moving
toward any particular goal. "
diners to farms and pharmacies. As a result, they took full
advantage of the local library, dropping a young Giang off
every afternoon for a few hours of playing Snap and Go
Fish with packs of cards left over from Chinese New Year.
" One day, " Giang remembers, " the librarian came up to
a group of us, and she said, 'Why don't you try something
diff erent?' And she handed over the fi rst magic book I ever
received, The Australian Magician's Handbook. And that
was when the world of magic collided with my world. I
actually loved it so much, I never ended up returning that
book. I kind of stole it. And I still have it with me today. "
Giang had his fi rst taste of the power of showmanship,
and it changed everything. " As a kid, I never got much
attention, and I didn't have a lot of self-confi dence, " he
admits. " Every time I performed magic, my friends or
68 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q March 2019
fi ngers were curling.
" Then he explained to me that,
growing up, he had had this deep love
for piano. He had an opportunity to
play for an orchestra, to travel the
world, but he turned it all down at the
age of 27 or 28 to build this fi rm. He
was now in his 70s, and he was telling
me that every day since, he had a deep
sense of regret. What he taught me
that day was that this all ends, that
everything we know in life-it ends. "
Giang paid attention. He quit
college and quit accounting. In
2012, he and his friend Lenny Tran
set up the Encyclopedia of Magic,
an online teaching resource for
budding magicians. Once it became
self-sustaining, Giang decided it was
time to explore the world of magic as
a performer. He went on to win top
awards at the Adelaide Fringe festival three years in a row.
It was there that he discovered
his love for speaking, but he faced a
dilemma. After a couple of years, he
says, the applause started to get old.
" Because I was fooling you, " he
says. " As the audience, you gave me
credit for something that I did not do,
because the way I actually did it was
not as impressive as you thought. So,
there was this disconnect for me. "
In 2016, Giang changed direction.
He merged his business with
52Kards, an online magic school
in the U.S., and transitioned into
Catch Vinh
Giang at
the general
session on
Tuesday,
March 19 at
ICBA LIVE
2019.
Independent Banker - March 2019

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