15 posts in this series
There were months where I sat in hotel rooms shuffling cards and saw no measurable improvement. Nothing felt different. Nothing looked different. And yet I kept going. Here is what I learned about the gap between effort and visible results.
Read MoreMost people dread starting from zero. I was terrified of it. But the moment I stopped pretending I had a head start and accepted my total ignorance, everything about learning magic became clearer, faster, and strangely more enjoyable.
Read MoreI spent years treating practice like medicine -- something that was good for me but not supposed to be enjoyable. Then I encountered a psychological theory that turned that assumption upside down and made me rethink the entire relationship between positive emotion and skill development.
Read MoreA failed performance in Salzburg, a botched routine in front of colleagues, a product that almost didn't ship. Every one of those red lights eventually turned green. I just couldn't see it at the time.
Read MoreColleagues who smirked. Friends who raised eyebrows. A business partner who flat-out told me I was wasting my talent on card tricks. They all stung at the time. They all turned out to be fuel.
Read MoreAdam believed in me. My audiences believed in me. But none of it mattered until I stopped waiting for permission from outside and started granting it from within.
Read MoreI thought grinding harder was the path to mastery. Then I read about Richard Feynman's breakthrough -- which came not from discipline, but from playing with physics in a cafeteria -- and realized I had the formula backwards.
Read MoreI used to think practice energy came from willpower. It does not. It comes from three specific sources -- and once I understood them, my worst sessions became better than my old best ones.
Read MoreNobody told me that genuine competence would take years, not months. When I finally accepted the real timeline, everything about how I practiced, planned, and measured progress changed.
Read MoreTwo to four years gets you competent. But the performers who take your breath away have been at it for a decade or more. Understanding the difference between competence and mastery changed what I am building toward.
Read MoreNobody handed me a certificate that said I was allowed to call myself a performer. I had to earn it the old-fashioned way -- by walking into rooms where I could fail, and finding out what I was made of.
Read MoreCo-founding a magic company gave me a title, a business, and a reason to perform. But the real transformation -- the one that changed who I am, not just what I do -- happened alone in hotel rooms with a deck of cards.
Read MoreI never set out to teach anyone anything about magic. But the moment I started sharing what I had learned with someone else, something shifted -- not in them, but in me.
Read MoreI invited Adam Wilber to speak at an event I was hosting in London. I expected a good keynote. What I got was a creative partnership that fundamentally changed the trajectory of my magic and my life.
Read MoreEveryone talks about the ten-thousand-hour rule. Nobody talks about what the hours actually feel like. Here is the truth: most of them are boring, some of them are miserable, a few of them are transcendent, and all of them matter.
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