A Battle Half Lost

[praetoritevong]

All I´m saying is that everybody does what they want with their belongings, it´s not a matter of what kind of thinking I have, but if somebody comes and tells me "Oh My god!! you have a Dodge Viper and you only run it from school to your house at 20 mph, I´m really angry with you!!because you are wasting that car" I´ll tell that people the same "It´s not you bussiness is my car!!!"

is true that the books are very overrated nowdays, but if he is angry with everyone else who purchased the book, it doesn´t make any sense to me because as somebody say above... freedom is a great thing!!.

I usually read a lot of books and not only magic books and he is right about the information inside those books... but getting angry because the other people don´t like it or look down at them...well is just dumb, is like getting angry with people who doesn´t like the same music as you

do you really think I´m wrong about that?

Bad analogy. You've also missed the point. I don't understand what is so difficult to understand. It's not a question of liking or disliking the book. Please read more carefully next time.

praetoritevong,

for what it's worth, I understand.

I once knew a magician who, when asked how many tricks he knew, would proudly and loudly proclaim the sum total of the number of items taught on the dvds he owned.

When handed a deck of cards, a rope, or coins he fell silent.

Brad Henderson

Bingo. Perfect reply as always. Thank you, I appreciate that, and it's worth a lot.

A final comment: I think a couple of you think too highly of yourselves. Believe it or not, I couldn't care less what happens to you. Sorry, but that's the truth. Most of you here aren't my friends. If you faded into the depths of obscurity and all I knew of you was a username on an internet forum - sorry, but I don't care. I honestly don't care whether or not you are a failure of a magician, or whether you end up being successful. That's life.

Why then do I post this?

Some people here have potential - a lot of it.

The attitude of apathy which a lot of people seem to have here - who cares if we don't use the information - is fine. For an amateur. But a lot of people also have high ambitions for the magic industry. Which is great. So all this thread is doing is prompting a reminder, that all the industry greats, didn't get there by accident. Did Vernon ever dismiss useful information? You bet he didn't. Did Baxter study the right way? Yes he did. They are all there because they refused to not care about the art. And they took responsibility for themselves - they made sure that they were using all the knowledge available to them, to the best of their ability. And that is a massive part of what made them great.

So for those of you who don't care about being average, mediocre even, and there are a few, that's fine, I respect that. It doesn't bother me.

But for those who want to be better than that, well, this is how. It has to start with you. It has to start with you casting off the apathetic tendency we often have. It has to start with you being conscientious of your study of magic. It has to start with you forgetting about how you look to anonymous internet 'magicians' on a magic forum, and start caring about how to be exceptional.

It is an attitude, as much as anything else.

If you know you have the information, use it, because the real successes are the ones with the drive, and capitalise on it.

Recognition is only half the battle.