Read the full transcript of award winning magician Gabriella Lester’s talk titled “The Magic of Pursuing Your Passion” at TEDxSurrey (Mar 19, 2025).
Listen to the audio version here:
Gabriella Lester: If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time. I heard that quote as a kid, and it completely changed my life. Most of us spend time looking at our watches, seeing time pass, waiting for the right moment to chase after that thing, that passion that is meant for us. Whether you’re a 5-year-old wanting to go to space, or a 55-year-old wanting to try something completely new, we all have desires waiting to be pursued.
Finding My Passion at Ten Years Old
Lucky for me, I found what I loved at an early age. I was a kid watching a magic show, wanting to know how the tricks were done, but also wanting to be the one to do them. When I was 10, I saw my first magician. Sitting in my school gymnasium, I’d just seen the show that changed my life, and I had to meet the man who performed it.
When the show ended, I rummaged through my mom’s purse, found a Sharpie, and raced to the edge of the stage. I took the crumpled ticket out of my pocket, and I asked him to sign it. He took the Sharpie, put it up his nose, pulled it out of his mouth, and my 10-year-old brain was officially broken. And I just knew, this is what I want to do with my life.
So, I began to learn. Eating with one hand, shuffling a deck of cards in the other, anything and everything that gave me time to practice my newfound passion. I practiced so much, that by the age of 12, I had a carpal tunnel diagnosis.
I had to wear braces on both of my wrists, and was told that I had the hands of a 9-year-old pianist. But that did not matter. The spark was lit, and it quickly became a wildfire.
That wildfire has led me to perform on some of the largest stages in Vegas, set and reach impossible goals, and have the opportunity to travel the world, pursuing my passion. Doing what I love has not only changed my life, but affected the lives around me, got me through some of my toughest times, and shaped me into the person that I am today.
When I was 14, a family friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She held on for a while, but eventually couldn’t escape the words, “You only have a few days left.” In one of her final wishes, she asked my mom if I’d be willing to come perform magic for her. This was the moment that made me realize I had the ability to do something that was larger than me.
Standing in her living room, I watched as Anna sat on the couch, wrapped in a blanket next to her husband. I asked her to pick a card, she chose the Ace of Hearts, and I spent the rest of the night making the card appear in impossible locations. Anna sat there, completely engulfed in happiness, as if she had all the time in the world to just sit there and watch me perform.
Before leaving that night, I snuck the card off the living room table and put it in my pocket. To this day, I still bring that card with me to every show. That night I learned that my choice to go after something that brought me joy could have the same effect on others, and I was certain that I wanted to chase it forever.
Surviving My Darkest Moment
Fast forward two years, I was a happy, extroverted 16-year-old girl going downtown to meet friends, excited about the day ahead, when suddenly that innocent excitement was taken away and in a split second took a turn for the worst. It became the most devastating day of my life. That day, I was raped.
There are no words on earth to describe what this is like and the detrimental effect it has on you after. I believed my life was over. I wanted it to be. But somehow, I still had this inextinguishable fire in me to go after this thing that I loved. And so I did. Not with ease, not overnight, but somehow, I kept moving forward. And because of that, I get to be standing here talking to all of you while the man who raped me sits in a prison cell.
There was a time in my life I was terrified to be in a room with a stranger, and now I get to travel the world performing for thousands of them. That was the line I used to close my show with a few months ago. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and shared that she had been sexually assaulted around the same age I was. Now she’s a mother and has spent her daughter’s entire life terrified she won’t be able to protect her from the brutal WHO statistic that says globally one in three women will experience assault.
But that night, for the first time, after meeting me, she expressed comfort in feeling like even if something awful did happen to her little girl, that her daughter could still find things that she loved and pursue them rather than forever being defined by a single event.
Look, life is full of unknowns, full of ups and downs, full of good and bad, full of ugly and uglier. But it isn’t about what happens to you. It’s what you do with it, how you get through it, and why it matters that you do.
The Power of Dream Lists
Back when I was a little 10-year-old child, I took out my colored markers and I made a bucket list of everything I wanted to do in my life as a magician. It had everything from talk to another magician, to do a show in Vegas, to have my own business cards, all the small and not-so-small dreams you have when you’ve got wide eyes and a whole life ahead of you. Fortunately, after performing on national TV at the age of 18, I was able to cross the last thing off of my list.
Now, given it wasn’t necessarily the right time to retire, I decided I should make another list. But this time, bigger, things I really, really wanted to work for. And at the top, New York Times. Okay, now we’re on to something. I finished making the list with things like that. Go on a world tour. Have my own TV show. Order more business cards. When it was finished, I folded it up and I went to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. It was the New York Times. It was the New York Times. And I thought I might actually be a magician. Fortunately, a few months later, I was able to pick up my own copy and read my first-ever feature on the floor of an airport while crying tears of joy and disbelief onto the pages.
And I don’t know what your passions are, but I do know that you all have them, whether it’s sports or art or music or taking pictures of everything you eat. Maybe not that one. But all I want you to do in this room, think about it. What is that thing, that feeling inside of you, the excitement you have when you think about it, the urge you have to run out of this room and do it as I’m saying these words? Go after it.
And whether pursuing your passion looks like quitting your job tomorrow or going back to school or reading a book, stop looking at the watch on your wrist, seeing time pass, and go after it. Set passion-based goals. Reread them. Write it on a sticky note and put it in every room in the house. Find people who share your interest. Talk about it more. If you have a to-do list, put it at the top. If you have a grocery list, put it at the top.
You should do what you love, not just because it can change your life but because it makes you happy and brings you joy. Who doesn’t want to be happy? We all do. We are who we are because of the things we love. We don’t know why we love them, but our passions make us unique, and being unique is part of the human experience.
So take the jump. Everything in life is a risk, but you only have one life, and doing what you love is a risk worth taking. Remember, if you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time. But when it comes to something you love, you are never out of time to start.
