Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I won't bore you with the details of my sad story but just give you an overview so you can hopefully understand how much Steem has meant to me personally.
A few years ago I got in a bind after some credit card scam artist took advantage of an employee at my business. My parents came to my rescue to the tune of $65,000. I was able to pay them back $15,000 within a few months but eventually the snowball effect of the scam started taking it's toll on my business and I ended up having to file bankruptcy.
Luckily I was able to save my business and keep my home but I have not been able to make loan payments to my parents since the bankruptcy. The loss of being able to do business with several of my main suppliers cost me some big repeat customers and I was basically having to start all over again building my business back up.
Then one day my friend who many of you know as Tuck Fheman told me about Steem and that it was a great opportunity to dig myself out of the hole I was in. Of course I was very skeptical at first although the more I listened to Tuck's explanations of what Steem was I became more interested. Finally I decided I would take a gamble with hopes it would finally allow me to begin paying the loan back from my parents.
This may not sound like the smartest thing to do at first however it ended up being one of the best decisions I have made in my life. After I was convinced that Steem was a legitimate opportunity for me to get back on track I decided to scrounge up a bunch of belongings and pawn them for cash. Anything that had value had to go including my wedding ring. Over a period of a week I sold off enough stuff to make a decent investment into Steem while the price was still under thirty cents or so.
Tuck handled everything for me because I have no clue when it comes to crypto-currency. So I sat back and waited hoping for the best. If I were able to double up my money it would have been a success as far as I was concerned. What I did not expect was to make far more than that and what looks like enough to pay off my loan from my parents over the next year at the current market rate!
Each week I take out a little and send my parents every bit of it hoping to pay them back as soon as possible since I put them in a bind when I was unable to pay back the loan when I said I could originally. They could not be happier since they assumed they would never see the remaining $50,000 ever again. My step-father is finally willing to speak to me again and I feel better about myself knowing I should be able to pay them back in full thanks to my decision to invest in Steem.
I want to thank Ned & Dan, hell I want to squeeze Ned & Dan soooo tight, for creating Steem and Steemit and giving me an opportunity to pay back my parents and feel good about myself again! The feeling of having to borrow money from your parents and not being able to pay them back is a horrible place to be and it's been very difficult to deal with over the years. It's also been very hard on my parents financially since I put them in a bind by borrowing that much money only to end up having to file bankruptcy later.
Also I would like to say thank you to all of the so called whales and everyone else who makes Steemit a great place to be. Without all of you none of this would have been possible and I cannot thank you all enough.