Once upon a time...
These images are screenshots I took on my phone some time ago when my internet wasn't working. It is a saved page (don't know why) from April 29th 2017, exactly three months after I joined Steemit and 14 months ago to this day. Price of Steem had tripled in the last 6 weeks and was riding high at 25 cents, 1/5th of today's price. I have these on an Imgur account and sometimes when I cross their path, I tend to reminisce. These were the good times...
They weren't good times because of the price as at this point, I had only just started trading and I had no idea what I was doing. And they weren't good times because back then engagement was high, just look at the comment counts. And they definitely weren't good times because the user interface was beautiful and, there was no night mode.
What made them good times was my ignorance to it all, my lack of understanding of what was actually going on and the feeling that I was really getting somewhere, that even though engagement was low, I was making inroads on my account, developing a future while developing myself. When I look back at these times, it was here that I was made.
You can see that after 3 months here, my Reputation was 64 but, look at my follower count, 109. I have mentioned many times before, follower count doesn't matter, quality of follower matters. There is my proof of that experience. At that point, my post/comment count was 488 with over 100 direct posts. That meant I gained on average 1 follower a post and even then, some were bots and other lost newbies like myself. Many of those posts were cent returns or, zeroes.
But, after three months of struggle, I was finally starting to see results in the reward numbers too. It was around this time that I started really getting interested in the platform itself and learning all I could. I started working out what was what, started exploring much wider than before and, increased my posting rate to more than 1 a day. Of course I didn't fully realize it at the time but, it was these times that created the base for my future here.
The interesting thing was that much like now, people were depressed because price had dropped from over 4 dollars to 6 cents in the last 6 months or so. I didn't know that at the time though. After all of my new learning, all I knew was that if I was going to be able to do anything here in the future, 2 dollars a day wasn't going to cut it, I needed a better strategy, I needed the elusive Steem Power, I needed to invest but, I had nothing to invest with but more of my time and effort so, that became my currency.
Back then, there was no winning people over with a vote, my vote was dust and it wasn't until HF19 that it went from dust to a few cents and, that was with a few thousand Steem Power. It was a brilliant feeling to see my vote add value to someone's work though. Do you feel that now? I hear of people saying 'my vote is only worth cents' as if it is meaningless, it is not. Those cents matter. They might not change the world but, they can change your connection to the community, each vote has an effect.
People spend way too much time worrying about the price and much too little worrying about what they are building here and, who they are building it with. Some of those few comments on my posts back then are from people who I still interact with from time to time (although not as much as I would like), people like me who saw more here even though the actual earnings were low. They saw community.
Sure, you can say that I was able to earn cheap Steem however that is a cop out because, there was actually no guarantee (and I knew nothing anyway) that Steem would go up or last. The people who say that now are going to be the same kinds of people who in two years from now will say it when Steem is a lot higher and much harder to earn again.
Regardless of how you look at it and no matter the price, it takes commitment to power up, it takes commitment to consistently put in the effort. One thing I like about the blockchain is that, it is all there, all in the history, each link, committed. When I look at these pictures it reminds me that since this time, each day, every day, I have sunk myself into this platform over and over again and with all likelihood, I will do it tomorrow and the day after as well.
You don't have to take it seriously, you don't have to commit to anything in this life but, don't expect those that do to wait around while you umm and aah about whether it is worth your time or not because, that isn't worth their time. They have better things to do. It isn't their job to convince you to care or to look out for your future, that is your responsibility although, some just might give you a hand of support if you are lucky.
There is work to do to have a place here and if you aren't willing to do it, someone else will happily take your position and whatever that will mean for their future. There is more to it than writing good content or commenting well and much more to it than maximizing numbers for return. You want to know what that more is? Damn well find out for yourself and stop expecting things to be handed to you on a silver platter.
After all, you already have a golden ticket.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]