I Joined the Circus: Mark McMillan

Change Agent: Mark McMillan, assistant property manager at CAC Real Estate Management Co.

Circus Specialty: The trampoline

Circus Trick/Work Trick: Like most students at Circus Arts, McMillan enrolled to try the trapeze. "I flew for a few years, but when it came time to start working with a catcher, I realized I needed to die and be reborn as a smaller person."

Indeed, the 31-year-old McMillan is tall and buff, with perfect hair -- the kind that falls just so over one eye. Still, he has no athletic background, and he confesses to a "geeky childhood that trampolining somewhat redeems."

McMillan took up the trampoline because he wanted to learn how to throw a flip on his wake board (a cousin of the surfboard). But now the wake board sits idle while he works on connecting his flips: forward-backward-twisting, forward-twisting-backward, and then beginning all over again.

"Trampolining is an apt metaphor for dealing with all of the change that goes on at work, where the dynamics of the job itself are always shifting," says McMillan. "Throwing tricks on the trampoline requires you to develop sea legs, which I've found to be helpful in my job. If you land anywhere but dead center on the trampoline, you can mess up the trick and maybe even hurt yourself. But now that I'm getting comfortable throwing tricks, I'm taking more risks on my job. These days, I'm not afraid to fail. I know I'll bounce back."

Sidebar: Schools of Higher Learning

Want to fly? You'll need a safe rig and a topflight instructor. You'll find both at the following schools:

San Francisco School of Circus Arts

As the name implies, the school features courses in most of the circus arts, including the trampoline, acrobatics, and the static trapeze. But the main act is the flying trapeze. Classes for all abilities run from 9 to 15 weeks; there are also drop-in classes for beginners.

Coordinates: San Francisco, 415-759-8123, www.sfcircus.org

Richie Gaona Trapeze Workshop

Gaona is a fourth-generation circus performer who debuted at the age of five with his family, the Flying Gaonas. He eventually ran away from the circus, so to speak, and took up the life of a Hollywood stuntman and trainer. Located 20 minutes north of Los Angeles, the school offers an introductory package (two lessons in 10 days) and an intensive weeklong program.

Coordinates: Woodland Hills, California, 818-710-8191, www.flyingtrapeze.com/gaona

Adrenaline Heights

This school is a one-stop center for fueling an adrenaline rush. If you can climb on it or fall from it, it's here: climbing walls, a rappelling station, a high wire, a high dive, climbing and hanging ropes, and a soon-to-be-completed giant swing. This is a great place for first timers to experience the rush.

Coordinates: Orlando, Florida, 407-672-9714

I Joined the Circus: Chris Weiland

The Performer: Chris Weiland, associate producer at computer-game developer Frog City Software Inc.

Circus Specialty: The tissue

Circus Trick/Work Trick: Weiland, a former dancer, recently discovered her go-to apparatus -- the oddly named "tissue." It's a large piece of red polyester fabric that's suspended from the school's 30-foot-high ceiling. In one of her tricks, dubbed "the Ramone," Weiland wraps herself in the tissue, dangles from the ceiling, then plummets and twists into a side-straddle pose as the fabric rapidly uncoils.

Unlike most of the other Silicon Valley denizens who train at the school, Weiland has genuine circus aspirations. This month, she'll perform in a Circus Arts production, titled Yusan, at the Theater Artaud. "I love the idea of being an artist," she says. "I just don't want to be a starving artist."

While Weiland is keeping her day job, she continues to work out four to six times a week at Circus Arts. "The circus resembles business in that even though we're a team, we perform as soloists, and our success depends on never forgetting that," she says. "Here, everyone is different; no one's a faceless cog." Like a good boss, Master Lu Yi (the school's master instructor) is a genius at assessing the realities of his students' talents and then steering them toward the apparatus that suits them best. The same goes for any job: The work won't work if it's not the right fit.

I Joined the Circus: Gabriel Wasserman

Change Agent: Gabriel Wasserman, information designer at SF Gate

Circus Specialty: Chinese acrobatics

Circus Trick/Work Trick: Master Lu Yi, who trains all the acrobats at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts, chides Wasserman as he walks across the floor on his hands. "More tall, Gabe! More tall!"