Failure is not the opposite of success!

A lot of people have the concept of failure as the opposite of success, but I disagree as many successful people have learned. Failure is what gets you to success, its part of the journey to success.
As Michael Jordan once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” because its those failure what makes you stronger every time. Every time you fail you  learn something new, every time you fail you get closer and closer to your goal, every time you fail you're one step closer to success.

You can look at countless success stories, every one of them had challenges to face, there is no such thing as overnight success every single successful person in this world had to go thru failure to get to their success. every single one had to work hard to get were they wanted to get. Its important that you understand that whatever failures you have had in life, that they are only steps on the ladder of success.

You cannot let failure paralyze you, learn from your mistakes, get up an try again. Remember that you're the only one that stands between yourself and achieving whatever it is you want.
Don't stop trying when you fail, get up and try again, remember that is not over until you decide is over. So fight with all your might and if you do fall, get up and try again and again. Remember to always look up, get up and don’t ever give up!


If you really want to know what is the opposite, the opposite of success is not trying.

So go out and try whatever you heart desires, learn to dance, try out for a sport, join a choir, learn to play an instrument, stop fearing failure, all it is, is a stepping stone towards achieving your goals.As always thank you for reading, tell us on the comments section what it is you would like to try out in your life, I challenge you to go for it! If you do tell us how it went.

Im gonna show you how great you are

The great Muhamad Ali once said "I'm gonna show you how great I am" I too aspire to be great, perhaps the best magician that has ever lived. Is that possible? of course it is, if I put in the time the dedication, the sweat, and all my heart. But I'm here for something else, not only do I want to be great, I want to make every human being I come into contact great. I want to make it my mission to "Show you how great you are."

I don't know what dreams and aspirations you have but I want to inspire you and motivate you to follow them thru. I want to help you become the best version of yourself thru my passion,which is magic. You see the only thing stopping you is yourself, I want to use my magic to shatter the reality you live in. I want you to question your mind, to expand it, to believe that what seems impossible can be made possible. My dream is to change the world and make it a better place. It might sound unreachable but if I don't try to make it happen I would fail by default. I want you to realize that you will not make your dreams come true unless you're actively working on making them a reality.

I want to help you to accept your dreams and to do something about them. We at some point start keeping our dreams to ourselves because we are afraid others will disapprove of them or because they seem so unreachable that we don't even try to do something about it. I want to remind you that you're powerful, more powerful than you can imagine. I want to represent the idea that what seems impossible today can become your reality tomorrow. You just have to believe and work hard to obtain whatever it is that you wish to accomplish. Remember that everything is impossible until its done.

It was once impossible to believe that by the push of a switch we could be able to create light, that we could communicate with another human being half way across the globe, or that one day humans would reach the moon. Yet human ingenuity has harnessed  the power of electricity, created lightbulbs, made cellphones, and created rockets. Our minds are the only thing stopping us, if we just learn to expand our mind we can turn an impossible idea into a reality. It all begins by believing in yourself, and working hard to get whatever it is you desire. The moment you don't believe you can do something, the moment you decide something is impossible you have created a barrier which you will never be able to surpass, you will limit yourself. But the moment you decide to become unstoppable, that moment you start believing in yourself, that moment were you decide that nothing is impossible. You will realize that you're more powerful that you ever imagined. and you will be able to make the impossible, something possible.

"I'm gonna show you how great you are" I simply need you to believe in yourself and to give it your all! I need you to stop fearing failure, and to try new things, more importantly those things you dream of doing. Don't be afraid of what other might think, follow your dreams! They re yours and no one else's, start pursuing your own happiness instead of what others tell you that will make you happy.
Become unstoppable! Become the greatest version of yourself!

Why do people hate magic?

Believe it or not there are people out there who hate magic. A very sad truth for someone who loves magic as much as I do. But why do people hate it so much? First lets talk about what magic is. Magic is like art is a very hard thing to define and it means different things to different people. But technically speaking magic is a performance in which supernatural feats are made to appear real by means of illusion, suggestion, scientific principles, sleight of hand, etc.

So why do people hate this type of performance which intends to be so interesting, mystifying and amazing? well there are many reasons, one of which is that some people really want to believe is real. So when they realize that a magician uses some sort of trickery they feel lied to, or like they are being fooled, which I mean they are but not in a bad sense. So that's one reason a lot of people don't want to be made a fool. But that's not what magic is about, you see they miss the point that is a performance, a type of entertainment. I sometimes wonder if this type of people hate theater or movies, after all the actors are only playing a role and making you feel part of the story which is all just pretend to feel as real as possible, which is what magic intends to do.

Another reason why people hate magic is because, well.... magicians. Some magicians act very arrogantly or act as if they were smarter or even better than everyone else around them. No one likes a performer or even a person who thinks they are better than them. Not all magicians act like this but is a very easy role to fall into, after all the magician is sort of an actor playing the part of a human being with powers beyond the laws of nature. Having or at least acting like you have these immense amounts of power can easily make you act as if you were better than the rest.

Sometimes is because of bad magicians, and I don't mean bad people, but I mean inadequate preparation. Some magicians just buy a trick from a magic store and just go out and perform in kids parties or events without adequately practicing  and preparing themselves to selling the trick to their audience, they just think because a trick is easy to do that it is easy to perform.

Lastly some magicians are into humiliating or embarrassing volunteers. For the most part its not purposely but its common. When performing is easy for some magicians to embarrass their volunteers to get laughs from their audience. But this character is a very delicate one, only certain people can pull a character like this, otherwise you just end up being a jerk on stage. As I mentioned no one likes being fooled and its just worse when you're purposely making someone a fool for others to laugh at.

So these are some reasons I've noticed that make some people not like magic, Do you like magic?
If not why not? Let us know by commenting below. As always thank you for reading, I hope you found this topic interesting.

Fear

Fear is a poison that kills many dreams and aspirations. I want to remind you that fear is only an illusion. Don't get me wrong danger is a very real thing, but fear is not, fear is a choice that you make. I want you to think of what is it that you're afraid of, and I'm not talking about spiders, snakes, or enclosed spaces I'm talking about those irrational fears that are stopping you from doing what you like and what you love. I don't know exactly how you life is but I know deep inside there are things you truly would like to do but you're not doing because you're scared. And you may say scared of what? I'm not scared. But you are! you're afraid of so many things:

• you fear you will fail
• that you're not good enough
• that you don't measure up
• that you wont be able to handle it
• that there are people who are better than you
• that you're not perfect
• that your dreams are impossible to reach

I'm here to tell you that is okay to be afraid, what is not okay is that you let your fear to take over your life and let it stop you from reaching your full potential. Don't ever be afraid of failure, failure is not the opposite of success, failure is what you must go thru to get to success. You must not let fear paralyze you from achieving what you want or you will never push yourself harder, to be the best you can be. You not only have to face your fear but you have to stand up to it and fight thru whatever obstacle comes your way to become better and to grow.

Every year for the past couple of years I've dreamt of making a horror themed magic show, yet every year I come up with excuses why that year I didn't make it happen, honestly every time I'm afraid of all the things that could happen, perhaps Ill loose all my money on a show no one will pay to see, or maybe it will be horrible and nobody will like it, perhaps something goes wrong and I end up injuring myself or someone else, or maybe just maybe is an amazing success and I just cannot handle it because I wasn't prepared. 

Last year an opportunity that would practically risk my job came about. I meet someone in my town that makes this haunted attraction here in downtown Fayetteville, NC. called "Lafayette Insane Asylum" I talked to him about my ideas to make an attraction myself and at that moment I asked him if it was possible if I could perform magic for the people that were in line waiting to go in at no charge. He said yes of course that would be awesome in fact he said ill build you a stage. This was it an opportunity to do what I've been wanting to do, of course I wasn't getting paid and of course I wasn't at all completely ready but here it was a chance to do what I love. 

I meet him on a Saturday and thought about all the things I could perform and all the things I would need, but time was ticking, if I truly was going to do it, I had to get ready fast because the haunted trail opened on that Thursday. As I was putting together a machine at my workplace on Tuesday I pondered of all the things that could go wrong, and all the money I would have to put on this show that would only last three nights and would bring me nothing in return, as all these fears of failure went across my mind, it hit me. A sense of peace and courage came over me reminding me of my dreams. If it wasn't now, then when? when was I going to start doing what I loved, and what I liked, so that very day I talked to my boss about how I had to leave at that very instant. And so I did, I left the job that I had for 4 or 5 years risking losing what I had worked for, for three nights...

And so I left that  job and I worked hard all day on my show and then the next day and then that night, reminding myself that things would work out because it was up to me to make them work out. I decided I couldn't be afraid of what could happen because I was in charge of my life. And so I performed, hammering nails in my nose, escaping strait jackets, conjuring spirits of dead kids, playing Russian roulette with a razor blade and playing five finger fillet, it was great I would end the day exhausted but with a satisfaction that cant be compared.

The show went great, people really enjoyed it, even though the first night the way it was set up some people would stand in front of the entrance and couldn't really see the stage. I would get off the stage and bring the show to them. I learned so much from those shows, my family and friends saw amounts of confidence that they had not seen before. I ended up out of the job I had, but the experience I gained I wouldn't change it for the world.

Here is a short clip from the show that I featured on The Loko Magic Show in which I was attacked by none other than Freddy Krueger:

Thank you for reading, no go out and be fearless! Don't let anything stop you from reaching your dreams!

Is Time to be Uncomfortable

Its strange advice, but unfortunately I have to say its necessary for your development. A couple months back I looked around me and I noticed things around me were moving yet it seemed I was in the same place, stuck in time doing the same thing over and over. Ironically as I digged around, I realized people that seemed to be moving along, seemed to be having those same feelings.  Don't get me wrong I was not unhappy with my life but the feeling of being stuck was something I couldn't shake off, I knew I could do something else with my life but something seemed to be stopping me. I tried to see what I was missing or what was wrong with my life, but there was nothing that was seriously upsetting my life, at that point I realized I was comfortable. And that in itself was the problem, you see when we become comfortable we stop growing, we stop wanting things, we stop trying to better ourselves, because when we are comfortable we decide that perhaps we don't need anything else other than what we have, we perhaps fall into believing we don't deserve anything more.

When I say its time to be uncomfortable, I mean is time to shake things up in your life. Even without knowing you personally I know there are things in your life that you want to do and try but for some odd reason you don't even try. This odd reason is being uncomfortable, you see as human beings we tend to give up or stop because we are scared that perhaps we are going to fail, or that maybe what we are not good enough, or that what we want to do will not be accepted by others.

I have been doing magic since I was ten, and I have learned countless magic tricks over the years but of all these tricks and illusions I have only shown very few to very few people. Usually when I would learn something new I would go to my mom and I would do these amazing effects, and every time my mom asked me to go show it to someone else who happened to be home, either family or guest, and every time I came up with excuses.
-I'm not ready
-Its not good enough
-I have to practice more
-I'm not good enough
-They probably wont like it
-I don't really know them
And many many more, you see I felt uncomfortable with the idea of performing either for strangers or of not being perfect. I missed the fact that performing was my practice, its what was going to make me better, being uncomfortable causes change.

I ask you to look into your life and find things you would like to try, perhaps you want to play an instrument, maybe you want to dance, or join a team in whatever sport you like, maybe you would like to sing, find what it is that you love. Go out and try it, yes you're probably not going the be the best when you're starting off, and yes there is a chance you will fail but guess what? If you don't try it,  if you don't decide to feel a little uncomfortable, you fail by default.

I hope this gives you something to think about, I hope it makes you try something you like, I hope you start living life in your own terms, and stop being comfortable and stop conforming with what you have, because conformity is the most common road to mediocrity. And I know that you were made for much more, so go out and get what you're worth. Be uncomfortable, and grow into the best version of yourself.

Thanks for reading.



This is just one of the episodes of The Loko Magic Show in which I attempt to read your mind check it out.