“After all, knowing oneself is far more powerful than simply commanding oneself.”

– Alex “The Cardman” Perricone

…I can’t believe I wrote that on my very first blog 13 years ago: December 31, 2012. That’s the last day of the year, a time where I was looking back and considering all the new adventures that awaited me. Somehow I found myself in a strange place between the end of old stories and new beginnings:

“As I move into the New Year, I carry a great sense of passion and humility with me that has contributed to the foundations of my very existence.”

Just one month before that, I won 1st place in a talent contest, Berkeley’s Got Talent hosted by Berkeley College Online® where students from each campus submitted videos to showcase their most artistic and prized skills. Feeling excited to graduate with my Bachelor of Science degree in the summer that would follow, I chose to honor the Woodbridge campus by building a replica of Berkeley College using nearly 100 decks of cards; the place that showed me how to transform my talent into a full-time business.

In all the years since then, I still question what it will take to truly make the fullness of this dream come true. Is simply believing in a dream enough? How long should it take? What does success as “The Cardman” even look like? Paralysis by analysis is a stumbling block, stifling my own ambitions many times along my path. I even wrote about it way back then too:

“There is a higher level of awareness that must be reached in order to give purpose and utility to an idea. If action is not taken, then the idea will remain simply as an idea; trapped in the brain without the hopes of ever seeing a world that is full of beauty and potential.”

I found some answers to this obstacle when I realized that time is not my enemy. Time is my friend. For it is in every new beginning that I pick back up a piece of myself. It is then that everything I lack transforms into a pursuit that inspires me to move, rather than an anchor that pulls me down.

Even building this new website humbles me. The date of this very first blog post: June 8, 2026 (besides being my Dad’s birthday) is itself a new beginning, despite the fact that it took me half a year to gather the courage to make this website go live. Why did it take so long? It wasn’t fear or doubt that held me back, my love is greater than that. It wasn’t lack of ability or technical prowess because I have made websites before. Like all my achievements and milestones, I have the belief and the desire. But what actually tips the scale to make me do anything is when I feel a real purpose. I never wanted to chase my dreams, but to follow them. And I know now that this is why I have gained so much, despite having done so very little.

I give thanks to God that I have been granted the love and support of my family that has gotten me this far. But most of all, for the grace to know my purpose as I reach for something more. As I write these words, I am etching a promise into the heart of all my dreams:

“Do what you love. And love what you do, fully.”

From everything imaginable in the arts of cardstacking, cardistry, & magic, to every authentic expression of myself: the man behind the cards…I am ready. I am enough. I am Alex The Cardman. And I can’t wait to share more with you: the reader. For no matter who you may be or why you are here, there is always a purpose. And that is where I begin.