[This article was first published as a McBride Magic “Museletter” on September 6, 2025 here. It is adapted below.]

“O great creator of being, grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.”

–Jim Morrison

Cross-disciplining our learnings is a powerful tool. Consider that when the great Albert Einstein was stuck on a physics problem—he picked up his violin to play Mozart . . . or note Steve Jobs returned often to his experiences in calligraphy and Japanese culture . . . or remember the greatest cross-discipliner of all, Leonardo DaVinci, spent 14 years studying medical anatomy and the dissection of lips to produce history’s most memorable smile.

Eugene Burger, John McLaughlin, and my book, Creating Business Magic, argues just this: There are powerful crossover lessons business leaders can learn from magicians, from how magicians think, and from how to think differently.

And today, we magicians and nonmagicians, we can all cross-discipline valuable lessons from other fields. Watching two recent and amazing documentaries, “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” and “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” I was struck by how much we can all learn from across the waters of our own profession and into the hearts, minds, and secrets of another. And a great place to begin is Rock and Roll and perhaps history’s greatest live performer, Bruce Springsteen.

Picture this: Springsteen the Magician . . . delivering in his mid-70s three-hour shows before over 70,000 people. And ask yourself: What can I learn and apply to my own leadership, public performance, or career? Below, five cross-disciplinary answers.

Constantly Get More Flight Time/Show Time: This is Malcom Gladwell’s proverbial 10,000 hours of “experience” that takes you to mastery, as the years in Hamburg took the Beatles to greatness. In the field of magic, to paraphrase master magician Lance Burton: “The best magician performs the most shows.” And, given how imperative communication skills are for leadership today, young leaders must just go do more speeches . . . and all leaders should do more presentations to test and retest new material and get better . . . and better.

This “Flight Time” allows you to land a plane under any conditions—to recover from any moment or mistake. For example, I once watched Springsteen in concert point to his own 80-something-year-old mother in the New Jersey audience, who he’d previously introduced, to beckon her onstage to go “Dancing in the Dark.” Instead, an overly excited teenage girl could not believe her luck—believing that Springsteen must be pointing at her!

Instinctively, she jumped on stage to dance with the Boss. But then, drawing on his 10,000-plus hours of live performance—and instead of ruining this teenage girl’s life—he danced for a bit . . . and then literally picked her up in his arms and “gifted her” back into the accepting audience. Then—and only then—Springsteen pointed to his own mom: His next dance, as if it was all planned. The crowd erupted.

Feed Your Own Artist: If you’re reading this you are not just a leader, but also an artist—like Apple co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs. So, you need to follow the example of Springsteen and build an entire team to feed this role. Just like Springsteen needs Thom Zimny or manager John Landau, you need a director, because, as the old Broadway saying goes: “Talent needs direction.” And you need a team of “cross-sellers”—think social media publicists. In fact, whether you’re a young leader or running a Fortune 500 company, you need a 360-degree support team. Even if they begin as “volunteers” or whether, along the way, you need to fill gaps and hire new energies, find talent, nurture it, and build your own E Street Band.

Rock Your Set List: Leadership today involves performance—you are not your Father’s CEO . . . and motivating your workforce or blowing away potential customers demands you organize a “show” that they will not forget. So, cross discipline your next annual conference or customer convention and learn from Springsteen—study his decades of set lists here . . . the killer opening, boom, boom, boom! “Oh my God, where are we tonight?” . . . the rests, texture changes, in-the-moment interactions . . . the gripping stories, funny adlibs . . . or the calling of a kid on stage to help sing “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day.” And, too, the quiet songs, that allow you to perhaps end with a moving call-back, as Springsteen now does, with a chilling performance of “I’ll See You in My Dreams” . . . that I watched completely hush 40,000 people at Wrigley Field.

Remember Every Detail Matters: I’m a believer in “Everything Communicates”—even the smallest details must be managed and herded and aimed in the same direction as your intended persona and brand. So, work the tiniest details. Watch Springsteen in the documentary walk the entire arena for 4-hours with his engineer to check the sound from virtually every seat. And, in terms of leadership communications, video and watch your own performances—pay attention to every single detail to leverage, or fix, and make better.

Follow Your Conviction: This one is simple—even if it’s very, very hard. Follow your inner passion. Like Springsteen. Lean into what brought you to be a leader in the first place, or to this moment of performance or this imperative for change. Let your passion show. Your true self. Show people who you are—and they will love you, follow you, and help you lead them into the future.

David Morey is Chairman and CEO of DMG Global, a best-selling author, and has advised 23 winning global presidential campaigns, 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners, and a who’s who of Fortune 500 CEOs and companies. As a magician, he’s performed at the Inaugural Ball for the 44^th President of the United States—and on stages around the world.