The Magic Behind John Rose’s Success: A Lifelong Passion for Performance and Business

• John learned how to perform magic tricks while being hospitalized due to an automobile accident as a child. 
• An accomplished entrepreneur is one who runs toward difficulties and not away from them, according to John.
• For John, fostering a culture of creativity and innovation in the workplace is integral for success.
• He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to gain related experiences and learning from those in the field before diving into a new venture

1. Please tell us a bit about your childhood and how it has shaped you into who you are today?

My usual joke—because I’ve been asked this question before—is that when I was very young, I was hit by a car, which helped shape my future, but also literally shaped part of my head, leaving it a little flat.

Because of that automobile accident, I spent a couple of months in the hospital, and during that time, people started bringing me little magic tricks. That sparked a lifelong love of performing magic, which has been a thread throughout my life.

A lot of instrumental things happened to me as a child. I was always around performance: I was tap dancing on a Boston stage when I was four, I started performing magic and comedy before I could drive, and I even managed a magic shop in Boston as a teenager. I got to meet a lot of world-famous magicians…I knew them when we were kids, and we are still in touch today.

I joined university as a theater and communications double major because I wasn’t sure if I would continue performing. I was also very interested in advertising, which is ultimately the direction I focused on

Because I had been performing for years, I believe I’m the only Boston College graduate who never acted in a theatrical production there. Instead, the theater faculty critiqued my act because I was already performing in nightclubs. So, I completed all my coursework but earned performance credits through my live performances.

Since I also majored in communications, I became very interested in filmmaking, media, and communication. One professor senior year told us on the first day, “I’m never going to hire any of you. Don’t bother knocking on my door.” Of course, I took that as a challenge. By the end of that year, I had a job at his radio station. He hired me after I performed a magic trick where the cards spelled out the station’s call letters on his desk. He thought, “If you can pitch like that, we want you to work for us.”

That’s how magic and communication intersected for me. The magic theme has continued to this day.  In 2018,I ran a large magic festival, MagiCuba, bringing hundreds of magicians to Latin America, essentially taking over Havana. Magic is still a part of my life in Dubai, where I’m working on bringing in magic acts.

One thing that stands out is that I was a very shy kid, and performing on stage pushed me out of my comfort zone, which has helped me throughout my life. Now, whether it’s on stage, in a conference room, or speaking to hundreds of people, it feels natural to me.

2. Being a successful entrepreneur is notoriously known for being difficult. What is one key thing that you think has helped you be successful?

Entrepreneurs tend to run toward challenges, while others often shy away from them. In my opinion, it’s part of an entrepreneur’s wiring—they thrive on the challenge. At least, I know that’s true for me.

When I was a little kid, John F. Kennedy was in office, and when he talked about going to the moon, one phrase from his speech stood out to me that we should do these things “…not because they are easy; but because they are hard.” And I feel like that’s what entrepreneurship is all about. It’s paddling against the stream—while everyone else is going one way, and you’re going the other.

If you look at my career—launching an advertising agency in the Soviet Union, in Cuba, in the Middle East.. It’s about following your instinct—even before the market allows it. If you wait until it’s easy, then you’re probably already too late. To truly be an entrepreneur, you have to take those risks. And I think having a few near-death experiences didn’t hurt in giving me a little more courage.

I was struck by a car—I was technically dead for a little while, but fortunately, I lived very close to a hospital so they managed to resuscitate me. I was also involved in an air-to-sea helicopter rescue while sailing off the coast of the U.S., which was a fairly harrowing experience.

I’ve had a few other mishaps along the way. It’s funny, when my son was very young, I told him about all these things, and he said, “Wow, you’re really unlucky.” And I said, ‘No, I’m still here. I’m pretty lucky. I survived all of these things so that you could be here now.”

But I think all of those things are formative. Being an entrepreneur is really about having the ability to go against the grain.

3. You’ve done many firsts. What are some of the key characteristics that you would say one needs to have to succeed?

Dare to dream, but learn as much as you can about what you’re trying to do.

One mistake many entrepreneurs make is getting involved in businesses they don’t know enough about. Many people open restaurants without ever having owned or worked in one—simply because someone told them they could cook. I find situations like that frightening because I took the time to learn my craft before jumping into it. I worked for another agency before starting my own business.

I would say, get as much experience as you can. Even if it doesn’t exactly match what you’re aiming for, there’s a lot of related experience you can gain.

I remember when I was hiring people in Russia to start an advertising agency—we were the first one there. There was no one to hire who had worked for an agency before. So, I had to find people who worked in printing companies, TV, and even a doctor because we were handling a medical account. She could make a lot more money working for me as an accountant manager in an advertising agency than she could as a doctor.

So, long story short, it’s about gaining as much experience as you can before taking the leap.

4. You’ve been involved in so many projects in different areas throughout your career. Is there one specific work or a moment that you are especially proud of?

I’ve had several acts in my career, and there were a couple of particularly meaningful periods.

For instance, my first client in Boston was in an interesting situation. I went to work for an advertising agency in the suburbs of Boston and brought in The Howard Johnson Company as a client—a large restaurant and hotel company at the time and a major account for the agency. But the client didn’t like the head of my agency. In fact, he would have to leave the building when the client came over.

It didn’t take long before the client said, “Maybe, John, if you wanted to go off and do your own thing, we would support you.” So basically, they put me in business. I’d like to think I had confidence, but it’s interesting how someone can give you that moment, where maybe they believe in you even a little more than you believe in yourself. That was an important moment.

Then, of course, there was the time opening up in the Soviet Union, which was a wild and wacky period. As I said, there was no advertising. The joke was that everyone was standing in line for every product they had to buy at the time, and they couldn’t understand how bad something would have to be if you needed to advertise it.

We brought over some large companies like Kodak, Coca-Cola, and Sony. We did a lot of interesting work, and that was meaningful to me as a creative guy because I was suddenly working with top-notch companies doing wonderfully creative things in a far-flung place.

5. Where do you see the future of marketing in the next few years? What trends should companies be preparing for?

I think there are a lot of things companies are struggling to prepare for—particularly AI. One area where we’ll see a quantum shift is in AI agents. They’re going to fundamentally change how we do things. Consumers will have their own personal AI agents. They’ll skip ads entirely. Instead, they’ll say, “Go buy me a watch,” and their AI agent will instantly do all the research and communicate with brand AI agents.

These agents will know our preferences and make personalized recommendations—giving brands little chance to interact directly with the consumer. Unprepared brands may be unable to insert themselves into that decision-making process.

That’s going to be a huge game-changer. On the other side, brands will also be using AI agents—machine-optimized to focus on clean data, clarity, and trust. The goal will be to meet the personal AI agents in the middle with the right response. That’s how purchasing decisions will be made. Brands won’t be able to jump in halfway through the process. They’ll need to be there from the very beginning. If they don’t already have a relationship or recognition, it will be very difficult to enter the equation.

We’re already seeing platforms like Google, Amazon, Apple, and TikTok take the lead, but it’s going to get even more aggressive moving forward.

The only way through it is creativity—because creativity is always the solution. There’s going to have to be a way to creatively influence consumer decisions so that brands can also influence their AI agents. In other words, brands will need to shape people’s perceptions of products and companies in a way that those preferences are passed on to their AI agents.

AI agents will essentially become digital extensions of the consumer. Marketing will shift from targeting people to targeting their AI agents. That’s going to be a really interesting transition.

6. How would you describe your leadership style? And what would you say are its strengths?

I’ve always worked in the creative business, so by nature, I have had to be more collaborative than autocratic. I started out as a writer, and in a traditional or classic agency model, there would be a copywriter and an art director working together. 

When I was writing television commercials, there could be up to 80 people working on a single project. It’s highly collaborative. What you start with on the page can become something completely different by the end—after going through treatments, storyboarding, production, and post-production. So, I learned early on that you need to work with people differently.

Even though I can sometimes be a notorious micromanager, I try to lead with trust and ideas. Over time, I’ve narrowed my approach down to four key steps:

• Hire smart—get the right people on board.
  
• Create space—build an environment where people feel free to create and do their jobs.
  
• Say yes to bold ideas—encourage innovation and support risk-taking.
  
• Get out of the way—once the people and the environment are in place, trust them to deliver.

Each of these steps comes with its own challenges, but frankly, if you get the first one right—hiring the right people—the rest becomes much easier.

I often joke that my real skill is finding people with skills. If I can do that, I believe we can win. And I genuinely enjoy working with good people. I can work alone, but I love collaborating with others in a creative organization.

7. What drives your approach to leadership, and how do you inspire and guide others to achieve their full potential?

For me, it’s about giving people space—and allowing them—to actually perform. I think that’s the most important part. I’m a naturally collaborative person, so I prefer to work with people rather than have them work for me. I’m also the kind of person who says yes to wild ideas—if they serve the client.

I believe my real strength as a leader lies in finding great people—and then getting out of their way. I tend to take a mentoring approach to leadership. First of all, I rarely ask people to do things I haven’t done myself. That gives me a certain level of understanding when guiding others. If someone is new to something, I believe I can help because I’ve likely been there before.

One lesson I learned early on: Always learn something as if you’ll have to teach it to someone else immediately. It sounds simple, but it wires your brain differently. I try to use that mindset in my leadership—encouraging people to not only learn but also to turn around and teach what they know.

Every time they learn something, I want them to think, “How would I explain this to someone else?” Because in the creative business, most of the work is learning before you ever get to do anything. Writing, for example, is 90% research and learning. The actual writing is the fast part.

So, I aim to foster a culture of institutional learning—where everyone learns so they can teach, and everyone mentors someone else within the agency. It’s a collaborative formula. I might be the one to start the wheel spinning, but everyone else keeps it turning.

8. What is your perspective on failure, and how do you bounce back from a low point in your career—if ever?

My first piece of advice? Avoid it. Try not to fail. That would be my initial recommendation.

I’m a writer, so I usually steer clear of clichés—but in this case, the cliché rings true: failure really is an opportunity. Something happens, you deal with it, and then look ahead. Fortunately for me, there has always been another “next thing” waiting. As long as there’s something out in front of you, something to reach for, you can move forward. That’s how I’ve always bounced back.

I also believe that reinvention is a skill, not a flaw. Reinventing yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you failed—it could simply mean that you’ve reached the end of one path, and it’s time to take another. A lot of people keep going just because it’s familiar. But choosing to pivot can feel a lot like failure—both are crossroads. Sometimes you make the choice, and sometimes circumstances make it for you. Either way, you move in a new direction. I find that shift to be one of the most fascinating parts of a career.

Another thing I’ve learned: failure hits differently depending on who you have around you. I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by people who love and support me. For example, I lived in Russia for many years, and when the war with Ukraine broke out in 2022, my wife and I left in a hurry. We packed two suitcases each, headed to the airport, and didn’t know if we’d ever see our home—or even our belongings—again. We caught the last flight out before everything shut down. When we landed in Dubai, there was a sense of enormous relief. I never returned to Russia after that. My focus shifted to ensuring a soft landing for our Moscow office team.

So when it comes to failure—or major upheaval—I believe a strong support network is everything. I had friends across the globe who offered us places to stay and even financial help. I’m not saying you should make friends just in case you need them, but when life throws you a curveball, it’s a gift to have people in your corner. If you’ve been a good friend, they’ll show up when you need them most.

9. Everyone needs a good mentor, but finding the right one can be tough. Did you have someone who helped guide you in your career? What did you learn from them?

Fortunately, mentorship is a thing these days. It wasn’t as much of a thing when I was first coming up. It happened, but I don’t think it happened as overtly as it does now. I go out of my way to try to mentor and do things for people today, but I don’t remember that being so common when I was starting out. That said, there were a couple of people who made a big difference.

I mentioned before that there was a company that helped me start my agency. There was a guy there named Jack Delahunt, who was a real tough nut. Everybody was afraid of him. But I would do my homework and say, “Maybe there’s a better way,” and he would listen. The rest of his people were just ready to say yes, and I think he really appreciated my confidence.

He was the guy who sat me down and said, “Listen, you want to start your own agency? I think you should do this, and we’ll give you your first account.” So he mentored me to that extent.

He was also very good. Obviously, as a creative, theatrically bent person, I was not necessarily the best at finance, but Jack taught me that I have to learn the numbers side too. You can’t just be the entrepreneur who doesn’t know his way around a balance sheet. You have to dig in and learn it in detail, or you’re going to get screwed. I took that to heart, and I would say I credit my success to that as well. Beyond business, it made me very comfortable around numbers.

Over the years, I’ve had to acquire and sell agencies, which was very important. I also come from a family of lawyers, so I shouldn’t rule out my parents as my original mentors. A lot of us forget that’s how it all began. These are things that helped form my way of doing things.

The idea of “borrow belief from others before you even have it in yourself” is something I learned from Jack as well.

10. How do you maintain a balance between your personal and professional life, and how do you relax and rejuvenate?

I think it helps if you really like what you do. For me, I love the business of marketing, and all the different things I do. I have a variety of pursuits, and I love all of them. That helps with work-life balance because if you don’t see much of your work as actual “work,” then it doesn’t feel overwhelming. That’s useful—and it helps.

In a similar vein, I’ve tried to give my children formative ideas. My son would ask me, “What’s the secret to life?” and I’d say, “It’s the three L’s: Love every day, learn every day, and laugh every day.” That was a mantra I instilled in him because I wanted him to understand how important those things are. And a lot of times, when you bestow wisdom on other people, it becomes even more ingrained in your own mind.

This idea of always spending a little bit of time each day thinking about someone else, learning, and laughing creates a life balance .

If you’re working in a business that you love and moving at a million miles an hour, it’s really hard to just put on the brakes and stop. You have to keep everything moving. If you’re running multiple businesses and advising different people, as I do, you can’t just stop. Instead, I mix it all together.

That being said, I’ve been able to live large, but I also really enjoy simple things. I love cooking and music. I play guitar, and I keep a ukulele nearby during Zoom calls. And, of course, magic is always fun—even though I don’t perform anymore. I keep my hand in it, and I have many friends who are great performers. I get to see them and spend time with them. 

I also think I’m pretty good at doing nothing when given the opportunity. Those opportunities are rare, but I’m okay just sitting still and thinking. I’ve learned how to relax. I didn’t know how to do that when I was younger, but I’ve learned it now. I’ve become comfortable in my own skin.

I think all of those things together are how I somehow manage to balance work and relaxation. I wouldn’t say that I completely disconnect and go off to an island to do nothing—I’m always doing something. But we live in a connected world, and that makes it possible to integrate work and life in a way that works.

John Rose’s journey highlights his command on creativity, networking, and collaboration. The intersection of magic and communication enabled him to enhance his art of captivating and convincing audiences profoundly.