My understanding why magic (or magical practice) doesn't work is that the paradigm and attitude preceding it is... simply incorrect.

When I see modern mages, I can see a big developed ego, affinity toward "ritual toys" (like special clothes, physical symbolism, and a lot of stuff), a claim for power, etc. They don't want to go through self development, or they mistaken it with their assumptions about themselves. It is actually similar to many "spiritual folks", who tend to overstate their "spiritual attitude". I knew people like these in past.

Instead, my perspective is that they should turn rather inward, generally speaking - to look up for their true inner self, where the real power comes from. Power is born inside, not outside, which seems to me obvious after these years of observations.

I've heard that magic is not something about doing - magic is a life style (literally: you need to think in a magical way, and thus turn everything in your life into "magically-oriented" fashion - or you're just faking, misleading yourself).

In other words, magic is a way of... mental activity. Everything then is magic (i.e. power-driven), and not a coincidence (i.e. failure/dependency-driven).