The Price of Success

Recently I read a very inter­est­ing art­icle by John O’No­lan. Being the under­dog is easy, you can say whatever you want without the mob attack­ing you.

Once you have (or are) some­thing, once you speak out and show your work, things change. The spot­light turns on you, and this cuts off the free­dom to say whatever you want. You get into the tar­get line and risk being criticized.

It hap­pens in any industry, in art, in music. So in magic. Tons of “mob” around in the for­um places and social media, lurk­ing around, post­ing, bash­ing and trolling anonym­ously. Attack­ing the ones who stand out. Mak­ing them­selves import­ant. Know­ing everything better.

John writes: “Innov­a­tion – real innov­a­tion – comes from the little guys. The ones who stand up and say some­thing that goes against con­ven­tion­al wis­dom or flies in the face of estab­lished norms. They push bound­ar­ies because there is more to be gained than to be lost.”

I want to be and stay one of those little guys in magic. No need to stop speak­ing out clearly on this blog and to be afraid of the mob. This is the place for my thoughts and ideas con­cern­ing magic. No censorship …