I have been on Steemit for about a week now, and because of 
Don't get me wrong, I would've stayed even without the lovely blue political whale that is making Steemit a better place, but he made me want to stay so much more. Steemit is an amazing platform, and I have loved every second of my time here, but producing original content that didn't make it more than a few cents was discouraging. I knew though, that I just had to keep writing.
Being discovered here involves a little bit of luck, not to diminish skill.
Yesterday morning I wrote a post about building a miniature water treatment plant and largely thanks to user berniesanders, it saw over $350 in upvotes at the time of writing this. When I saw this, I jumped up and down. When I told my wife, I think she was a little overwhelmed with my happiness. I had finally had a successful post here, and it felt like the Steemit gods had decided I was worthy of their favor.
Following the excitement I saw of my water treatment post succeeding, I checked my blog again and saw one of my photography adventure posts had also been blessed by none other than
Here's why whales like bernie are essential to Steemit
Without berniesanders, it would have become increasingly hard to spend the amount of time on this site that I was. Not to myself, I'm a Steemian for life, but the wife was wondering why she didn't see much of me and I wasn't making any money. I digress. It's really easy for those who produce quality content here and don't get discovered to keep doing what they do. This platform will only succeed when the good content producers are rewarded and compensated to stay. So while I don't know if I will see any more success with my posts (I sure hope I do!), user berniesanders gave me enough of the taste of the #Steemit bug that now I'm hooked for life.
That's what so important about berniesanders and other whales that can swing a post's success with one click of that upvote button. While they are keeping the quality of Steemit up, they also serve as the websites best retention system of content producers, writers, photographers, and creative minds. When a whale upvotes your post, it is one of the most glorious moments in the world, and trust me, it is worth it to keep writing just for the chance that that may happen in the future.
Whales being involved in the community and the success of posts is one of the greatest aspects of Steemit. It provides instant and large success. This produces the same feeling as winning a lottery, and it will keep people coming back.
A note to those questioning if they should stay on Steemit...
DO IT. If you're original, thought-provoking, helpful, or if you add something here, you will find value through your content if you haven't yet. It's only a matter of time, keep working hard. Steemit is going to revolutionize your life. I feel it's on the verge of revolutionizing mine.