Do you want to be one in a one hundred thousand?

No longer can you remain a "mono-skill person" and expect to go to the top of your career ladder. When you look around everybody has qualifications in more than one discipline. The accountant has a marketing qualification. The marketing professional has an MBA and the human resource degree holder is also a fully qualified accountant.

Therefore, it is obvious when you are trying to seek a new job or advance in your career; you need to have developed other skills. In general we could call them personal skills.

Education helps us to gather knowledge and make use of this knowledge to solve problems. However, it does not teach us the two important qualities that are required when we go out to apply our acquired theory into practice. The all important Double C. Communication and Creativity.

One may have loads of important data packed into a comprehensive Power Point file. But if you cannot make an impressive presentation you may be unable to convince your client, board of directors or maybe an interview board. Communication is not only public speaking. It is also clearly transferring an idea on a one to one basis and sharing a thought within a group.

The linear education systems we have to follow to gain qualifications totally ignores it and is also incapable of teaching the other vital C ingredient namely creativity. All of us have the element of creativity within us but most of us have not mastered the thought process to get it out into the open and make use of it.

If the two Cs are so important and formal education doesn't teach them, how do we learn these skills? One could follow short courses or attend workshops.

That's mostly for public speaking but creative thinking is very difficult to learn in a classroom.

There is one single method by which you can become a confident communicator and also a creative thinker. Become a Magician.

Magician? Is that what I said? Most definitely yes. The first thing that happens when you become a Magician is that you become an extremely exclusive person. Magic is a performing art just like singing, dancing, acting, miming or juggling.

While there are tens of thousands of persons who can sing or act or dance, there are only around 200 performing magicians in Sri Lanka.

So when you are a magician in this country of twenty million, you become one in a one hundred thousand. Obviously this will add to your self esteem and self confidence. The best way to become a magician is to join the Sri Lanka Magic Circle. Established in 1922 it is the oldest performing arts society in the country and is recognised by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

The office is located at 156 Templars Road, Mount Lavinia where members meet in the morning of every last Sunday. For further details you can visit the website www.srilankamagic.org.

Meeting with a difficult customer in Sri Lanka or even a tough Customs officer in a far off land magic is a wonderful ice breaker. It helps you to gain entrance, attention and acceptance where ever you may go.

To be a good Magician a person has to develop proper posture, gait, speech and facial expression and wrap it all up in your own creativity. William Shakespeare once said "All the world's a stage". If that is correct, it is obviously the best performers who will get the applause of life. Add that extra edge to your life - become a Magician today.