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When I was in college I always went to clubs with my friends. Not clubs that played rap, or country, or hard metal. Real clubs.  Clubs where techno, breakbeat, house music and trance was played. Clubs where people danced and drank and had a good time and where the thumps from the speakers were so loud you could feel your lunch rising up in your stomach.  I’ve always liked electronic music, for as long as I can remember I’ve been listening to DJ Merritt’s EDGECLUB show on 102.1 FM.  I remember the first time I went to the Red Jacket off Greenville avenue and stared at those two Technics 1200 turntables and that 12” vinyl record just spinning.  I thought “that is a thing of beauty.”  I was mesmerized by it.  Still to this day when I see one turning on a turntable it brings back memories.  My buddy Jeremiah was a bouncer there and always just let me in, no line, no cover, I’m with the band so let me in sucka.  One day me and my buddies went to a club called “The Village” in Oak Lawn and I made friends with the DJ there.  Every time he played a song that was a crowd mover I’d run up to the DJ booth and he’d stick the record cover up to the window so I could jot down the name of the song and the label it was on.  This went on for months until finally I looked at Kimball Collins at the Red Jacket DJing one night and I said “I can do that.”  So off I went.  $1500 later I was at home with 2 Technics 1200 MK3 turntables, a mixer, and the nicest headphones money could buy.  I was more motivated to learn how to spin than anything else in my entire life.  I spent almost my entire free time in life that wasn’t spent on school or work in a record shop sifting through thousands of records.  I will never forget that first day of practice.  I was so discouraged you would think I had lost my arm in a car accident and couldn’t DJ. It was like it was Mandarin Chinese or something. So hard I couldn’t even think straight. For the first month or two I almost quit 6,798 times.  Finally around month 3 or 4 I got to where it didn’t sound like 2 shoes in a dryer.  Progress.  But still aganizing when I could see in my head me playing house parties and raves with the best songs that no one else had because lets face it, no one in the world listened to more dance music, searched more record shops, and listened to more DJ Mix shows than me.  My college buddies used to joke that every time they saw me I was glued to the computer at North Texas in the student labs with my headphones on and shut out from the entire world.  If I wasn’t in class or working, I was looking for records.  No one would be more in the know than I was on this particular subject and it frustrated me that it didn’t just come as 2nd nature to me.   I will never forget the day that it just “clicked.”  I put my 2 favorite records on for practice and they were mixed almost instantly.  I thought “maybe the speeds were just set the same.”  So I put two different records on. Same thing.  Beats matched perfectly almost instantly.  I was in heaven.  I stayed up all night and mixed almost every piece of vinyl I had and the next day went to Bill’s Records off Spring Valley and emptied my bank account and bought every choice morsel of  12” vinyl I could purchase.  For the next week or so I started mixing CD’s and giving them to my friends. At first no one said anything. But slowly they started asking if I could do a party or a house get together. I’d start lugging my gear around and having a blast playing at parties.  All for free.  I was doing something I loved doing and that I was obssessed with and was glad to do it. I was having more fun playing my records than any of the people dancing and having a good time were.   I got better, and better and better until finally I was sounding just like the DJ’s CD’s that I was buying and listening too.  No missed mixes, perfectly seamed music and transfers. It was great.  Then shangri la hit.  What I had seen Kelly Reverb do at the Red Jacket all those times I was now able to do.  There is one way to tell how good a DJ is when it comes to spinning.   If a DJ can slap a piece of vinyl on a turntable and only use the pitch control (speed of turntable spinning and therefore matching the two records’ speeds) to mix it, he’s good. Very good.  If he’s constantly backing it up with his hand and then using the pitch control as kind of a secondary tool, he’s not that good.  Now I was doing it just with pitch control.  It got to the point to where I could be doing a house party or a rave and almost carry on a complete conversation with someone talking to me while mixing two records together. It was sweet.  Now how does this tie into life and success?  Simple.  All of us have something that we can be excellent at, enjoy doing,  and fulfill our dreams.  Finding it is the first part.  Following through with it is the 2nd.  Spinning records and moving a crowd with music was what I was excellent at in college and to be honest I’m still searching for what my calling and assignment is now.  It may seem extremely hard when you set out to be successful in whatever area you choose.  You’ll want to quit a million times.  You’ll throw up your hands and not know why it’s taking so long.  But if you know you can do it, if you love what the end result is, if you stick with it you will get to the point to where not only are you excellent at it and succeeding immensely in it, but you’ll also get to the point to where it’s easy. To where it’s second nature.  And you won’t get there without being obssesed with it.  No one is excellent at anything they aren’t obssesed with.  It just can’t happen.  I never would have got so good at DJing had I not eaten, slept, and crapped Djing.  But once it does become and obsession and you do it consistently then you are in the realm of greatness for whatever endeavor you set out for.  And that my friends is the sweet spot. That’s where practice times discipline times destiny equals your dreams come true.  Whether it’s money, stability, fame, fortune, success whatever.  You can do anything in this world as long as you stick with it and put in the time.