“Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams”

By Anina Kazaz 25 August 2018, 12:00AM

“Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams”,  is the advice from Tupa’i Frank Bruno, the ringmaster of Magic Circus Samoa.

In an interview with the Weekend Observer, he shared the reasons he became successful in his line of work.

Growing up in a circus family, Bruno was faced with managing the circus at a very young age.

Bruno’s family left Europe for America and later on went to Cuba, but their final destination was Puerto Rico, where his dad passed away when Tupai was just 14 years old. 

A few years after the death of his father, Tupai continued with the circus in Puerto Rico.

“I learnt how to run a circus from a very young age. I had to take care of people, feed people, pay salaries and all that.

“So I didn’t have too much time for formal education but in those days my parents used to bring tutors to the circus, that is how I learnt how to read and write, mathematics, the basics of education. Of course they didn’t teach business management at that age, but that was already there,” Tupai said.

His Italian and French roots opened doors, he said, and he also learned Spanish and English. 

Bruno closed his circus and moved to Spain before working as a performer in New York.

“I always loved to make tents when I was a little kid. My father was a very good tent maker,” Tupai said.

His father had a friend who was a tent maker and he voluntarily offered to help him just to learn how to make tents. 

“I had the flair of circus advertising so I put a tent company, which was really successful. I ended up making tents for almost every U.S. circus. That was a second business and all of a sudden it got a little bit too big for me.” 

He learned about the Pacific region when he worked in Hawaii. 

“I wanted to bring the circus to this area as something new,” Tupai said.

“I try to do things right and I think that is important for kids to know don’t do things the wrong way. 

If you want to do something, do it right and that will leave you a lot of friends and people who care about you. 

“If you believe in something just try and do it don’t be afraid, what’s the worst that can happen. 

It doesn’t work anyway then do something else, but if you don’t try it, you don’t know. 

“There are so many talents and we need not only myself, but I think the Samoan people or companies when they see something they need to help a little bit. Don’t just think for your business or yourself, at the end the rewards are in many ways so much bigger than the expenses,” he said.

By Anina Kazaz 25 August 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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