STEEM Gave Me An Opportunity And I Saw Potential.

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I saw great potential in STEEM almost immediately when I joined in mid 2016, and even though I had tremendous luck and was heavily rewarded early in my "Steem-career", I knew that things would change with time. I've mentioned some of these things over the years and I've talked about how grateful I am and I've also talked about the hard work it involves to be a great author, or a well-rewarded Steemian. Legacy. Reputation.

I would obviously rather be rewarded 5 Steem per post if the price were $5 per Steem than 50 Steem at a price of $0,12. I personally don't think that quantity is necessarily a good thing, even though you might think otherwise as quantity is power on Steem. The more Steem you have (Steem Power), the more power you have. You get more control over post payouts and you earn more curation rewards the more Steem Power you have...


It's frightening to think of how things would be if Steem were to jump to a value of $5 per Steem when we look at all the heavily rewarded people we have. 50 Steem here and 100 Steem there, per post. Many of these users deserve great rewards because they are working hard and they put in tons of effort, but it gives me some chills to the bones when I think about how it would be if we reached an all time high... Some people would be crazy rich.


Despite the amazing success I had in the beginning, with payouts in the range of $200 all the way up to almost $1000 for a single post, I've literally been struggling on Steem since my first day here.

When no one believed in me, when my posts were overlooked, I was ashamed of myself. I often felt like it was a waste of time and I compared myself to others. I compared my content with others and it lead to more anxiety and even more struggles. I knew that Steem had great potential. I knew that Steem could be life changing both for myself and everyone else, so I didn't want to give up...

  • But the more I tried, the harder it became.

I have been on Steem since July 2016, and it is still difficult. I still struggle with each post I write, and with all the posts I write that I never publish...

I don't compare myself with others nowadays, but I compare what I do today with things I did in the past, and the results I had. And I'm not talking about the rewards alone... I'm talking about the impact in general. The impact Steem has on me personally, and the impact the things I do on and for Steem has on others. I seem to measure these things all day long, and no matter how much I try to avoid it, it seems to be impossible.



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I am my own worst enemy and I blame only myself for that. I blame myself because I know that many of the things I do or have done in the past has been something that has been truly rewarding for others, meanwhile I ignored myself. I didn't only pave the way for others, I also carried them for as long as I could. But that is me in a nutshell. That is who I am.

I give until I have nothing more to give, and if that means giving away everything I have, I do it. That's probably why I will never be a millionaire. But I am okay with that.

My goal has never been to become a millionaire. My goal in life has always been to help others, which is why I ultimately changed course in life and went from a full time freelancer to a student. I have recently finished school and I am about to start working in my new profession. Tomorrow will be my first day at the nearest psychiatry department.

I am excited because I have, probably for the first time of my life, come to understand that I might actually be one of the best suited persons to do something like this. I can and will use my own life experience along with what I learned during my education to help others.

I will have an impact in peoples lives, and I will do whatever I can to help them to live their lives to the fullest. Regardless of their illness, regardless of their skin tone, age or gender. I will be the best I can be, and I will do whatever I can to help them.

So, this basically means that knowledge is power. I had my life experience previously, and I could probably have done a great job using that alone, but the education gave me more knowledge. It gave me a better understanding and I have learned many new things. Things I wouldn't have known... And things I need to know.

There are tons of things I don't know about Steem. I don't know exactly how blocks are being produced or how a blockchain works. I don't know the coding and I'm not even really active on Discord anymore. I don't lick balls and I don't try to make anyone cum. I don't beg for upvotes or donations. Even during the last few months of my education when I had 0 income and a shit ton of bills to pay, I refused to beg any of you for help.

I have always been the guy who helps others. Not the other way around. I pave the way for others, and I am able to do that because of my hard work and my mistakes. I have never asked for anything in return, even though I admit that I have wished for many things when I've been alone in a silent room.

I can't really say that I believe in god. I believe in "something", but I lean more towards believing in karma. What goes around comes around.

As of today, in January 2020, I am finally able to do certain things a little bit different. I can honestly say that STEEM have caused me a fair share of headaches over the years. I have witnessed many amazing and wonderful things happen, but I have also been here during all the lows and bullshit. I don't like where we are today, and even though I am not as convinced as I once were about the direction we're heading at, I am still a believer. I believe in STEEM and I can still see tremendous potential. It's nothing like what I first thought it would be, and that has probably been my biggest problem. I was convinced it would become one thing, but it went on to become something different...

  • But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.


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Like so many others out there, I once saw STEEM as Steemit. I saw STEEM as a place for people to blog. I saw STEEM as a place for the typical "Bob" and "Mary" to share family photos and be rewarded for it. I basically saw STEEM as something like a Facebook-clone that gave people an opportunity to earn money... And I still, to this day, see STEEM with somewhat similar eyes.

I have never really cared much about being decentralized or not. I have never thought it would matter much to "Bob" or "Mary" either. I have never used that as some sort of "sales pitch" when I've tried to bring people in. Censorship? - Nope, I haven't cared much about that either, because I am just a simple, random guy who used to post shit on Facebook.

In all honesty, despite what some people might say, I still believe there is censorship on STEEM. I know, we can still see the content and whatever, but nope. To me, it is a form of censorship no matter what.

And that's the thing. It doesn't really matter if that is in fact true or not. What matters is how people see's and understand things. And even if they actually understand it, they might still refuse to see it like that.

That is, according to me, one of the problems we have on STEEM. It doesn't really matter how much we try to educate people, because how they see things, how they experience things are what matters to them.

However, that brings me to the awesome dApps we have. With YouTube acting retarded, content creators will look for other places to share content. - Hello 3speak!

That being said though, it will take a long period of time before people will truly see how amazing potential there is lying outside of their narrow mindsets. People need to think outside the box, and they need to come across STEEM in one way or another before they join. - We need to advertise even more.

That is up to you and me. Many of you are already doing it regularly. You share your STEEM content on twitter and other social medias which is awesome. That gives STEEM much needed exposure. That is how I believe we will thrive and survive.


As of today, I will try to be more active. I will work more "behind the scenes" than what I've done during the last few months and I will promote STEEM where I see fit. I will also start to power up STEEM and build my account so I can continue to give, care and help others around me. For that is who I am.



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16 comments
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It sounds like a good plan. Good luck with your new life.
Don't bother with advertising too much tho. It'a waste of time.

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Thank you very much, I appreciate it. It was a really rough 2019, especially the last half of it, but it ended great and the start of 2020 has been awesome so far. Hopefully, I'm able to continue the positive ride for a little while. :)

Do you really think advertising is a waste of time? And why is that?

I mean, from where I stand, that is literally the only way for steem to get exposure, hence more people. I appreciate the comment though, and I won't be overdoing it.

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Do you advertise YT or FB or any social media?
If it's good people will find it.

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I will probably go the same route as I did in the early days. With natural, sort of lowkey marketing. It worked great during my freelancing days when I offered brand building services.

Instead of literally spewing out links to Steem/Steemit everywhere, I will basically tone it down and include it in topics that actually relates to anything that Steem has to offer today. For instance, if someone is talking about the YouTube censorhip, I'll be able to promote 3speak as an alternative.

The same goes for people looking for an easy way to blog or get paid for doing surveys online etc. I think that's a splendid opportunity to promote Steem, even at the current prices.

So yeah, I will probably promote Steem on YouTube, Facebook and on various internet marketing forums to begin with.

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I hope the first week goes very good for you, that can make or break any new job. I am sure you will do well, just keep your confidence high, and do not let the other workers decide for you if you like or don't like this or that aspect of your new job.

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Thank you, yeah I know. The good part, or perhaps the best part is that I've actually worked there before. I had what we call APL (workplace based learning) there for 5 weeks during the summer. It was included in school, so that feels really good.

Well, that was probably not the best part actually... The best part is that they called me and offered me a job, and I didn't even apply for one. :D

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I saw the potential too when I joined about the same time as you. Some people were making many thousands on a post. I had some make a couple of hundred, which was amazing enough. It was looking like Steem could make up a large part of my annual income, but not so much now. I stuck with it anyway as it was fun for me. I just post about what interests me and I have made a lot of friends. Going to Steemfest twice was pretty amazing. I still think we have something great here if we can just reach a tipping point. It is far from perfect and there will always be those who just try to exploit it, but I think there are enough good people to make it work. I'm an optimist. I'll keep dealing with some of the abuse I see as it can make a difference.

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" I still think we have something great here if we can just reach a tipping point."

Totally. I just wish we would reach that point sooner than later, as it gets harder the longer it takes... But we will get there. I'm sure of that.

I wish I would've attended Steemfest. It sure seems like that's a superb source of motivation and inspiration. Perhaps one day... Who knows.

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I do worry that something else will come along that people go to instead of Steem, but nothing I've seen has quite matched it yet. There are still only a few active people on Steem and we need more.

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It's frightening to think of how things would be if Steem were to jump to a value of $5 per Steem

I think about this a lot. Money changes people. For the last year, my $ payouts have stayed about the same but the price of Steem has tanked. I've essentially already made it and will be set for life if we get back up to those all time highs and stay there.

Pretty crazy to think about. 50 Steem is a lot, especially when we look at the scaling limitations and RC costs of the network. If Steem becomes popular enough some people will barley be able to afford renting RCs from a pool, let alone actual coins.

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"I think about this a lot. Money changes people."

Yeah, it certainly does so I suspect that some things would be different, especially many peoples actions, if the price were to reach the ATH.

But, at the same time. I doubt that anyone actually believed that they were to become millionaires because of some posts they wrote on a platform... :D

Will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

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I enjoyed reading your perspective as a early adopter. I have only been here since 2018 and I have seen so many changes. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to see payout decrease so dramatically. Not to mention new vs old steem. I have great faith in the chain. I have this faith because I think blogging/Facebook Steemit inc type posting will be a thing. However, the Dapps is what I see driving the chain in the future.

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"However, the Dapps is what I see driving the chain in the future."

I agree with you, but that is basically the thing I didn't think of from the beginning, when I first joined. I thought this would be about writing posts on Steemit, and nothing more than that.

Hopefully, dApps will prove to be the ticket to new glory days for Steem.

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