Former Wall Street worker explains how he overcame rejection fear by creating split personality

What was said

"I realized that I need to separate myself, this part of your psyche that takes the hurt and feels it, and separate from this other person. I called him Oz the Magician in my mind. I created this split personality where all of the anger, chaos, frustration, hurt got put on this other person where I could deflect that responsibility and go, they don't know me."

Oz Pearlman reveals the psychological technique he developed at age 14 to handle constant rejection as a restaurant magician: creating a mental split between his true self and his performer persona. By attributing all rejection to "Oz the Magician" rather than his core identity, he protected himself emotionally and was able to persist through hundreds of rejections. This allowed him to eventually quit his Wall Street job and build a successful career as a mentalist.