First and foremost, the statement in the title is NOT MY OPINION... It is an uneasy feeling I got after doing my latest research. Many of us use the terms whale and dolphin. But WHAT SPECIFICALLY ARE THEY? It was so hard to find consistent answers out there, but I found some common perspectives and if I get it severely wrong, please correct me and correct me quickly :) We will discuss that later.
From there I have done some mathematics and contemplated some scenarios possible realities where how long CERTAIN SITUATIONS will transform a minnow into a whale, and HOW LONG THAT MAY TAKE. And the title of this article is just one of the possibilities. I feared that it is a likely one, but there are other possibilities. I invite you to read on and see for yourself.
Here's the thing... There are so many conversations on here about minnows, dolphins, and whales. We are all here for our own reasons. Some to read the quality content here on steemit. I believe there are more good articles here than most places because of the format of this platform. Some are here to write and connect with others. While others are here to market their websites and products from elsewhere on the internet. But there is an underlying reason regardless...
And in the front of most people here and even more people with this on the back of our minds. We look forward to a day where we will become one of the legendary Steem Whales and live a life of affluence online and offline.
Many people want to be a STEEM WHALE.
Yesterday and last night I had the time of my life creating two articles that was quite a breakthrough for a minnow like me.
and
https://steemit.com/steemit/@yoda1917/re-if-steemit-is-to-survive-and-thrive-it-needs-to-get-fairer
Oh a whale visited both of these threads as one single upvote up the reward of both posts by about $10. And I don't think he or she made a comment and I have no idea how to find this person. I would really like a conversation with this whale. Anyone got any ideas?
And they really soured, yeah sure they are not dolphin or whale calibre, but they really got the upvotes and a huge conversation which I worked really hard at, and they each made more than a few cents. One of them even ended up on the trending page for facebook. I was stoked and was feeling a little bit like this ;)
I steemed late into the night answering over 100 messages and enjoyed a lot of conversation with a lot of great people and learned a lot. Then collapsed in bed to wake up four and a half hours later and... you guessed it checked my steem lol. Aside from finding a lot more replied to answer I was sent an article by
https://steemit.com/steemit/@gigafart/why-minnows-don-t-buy-steem by
This had me in a daze and tunnel visioned until at least noon as I could get my mind off it.
What is the target here?
Everyone has their own. But I will state one that is possibly not my own. Frankly I don't know yet. And I will make a few assumptions that goes along with this GOAL...
- Become a whale
- Be able to generate an income that is consistent and enough to live on comfortably
- Be able to be free from having a job
So what actually is a DOLPHIN and a WHALE?
So after a lot of conversations, research, and some mathematics, I came up with a few alternative conclusions for people to choose from. Here is the one I went with, and again if you know I am wrong and you are sure, please correct me and correct me quickly. 
WHALE
Someone with 100MV or about 50,000 Steem Power or above. Their upvotes are worth about $10 or more. So every time they upvote someone or their own work and their own comments it's like printing money. And many in the community observe their every move, and every move they make affects the community. They are the gentle GIANTS of the steem ocean.
DOLPHIN
Someone with 10MV or about 5000 Steem Power. There are a lot more of these and their upvotes generate about $1-2.
Now let's talk about achieving a status which breaches the lower limits of whaleship
There are a few ways:
- Buy Steempower. At the current market rate it would be about $85000 US. Of course STEEM value may go down a little
further. And also one can buy into a place somewhere between a dolphin and a whale. Well that rules a lot of us out.
Certainly for me anyway.
- Market goes up dramatically. Some of us may have substantial steempower at present and if it goes up it may reach
whaleship or get you a lot closer. That not true in my case. But a combination of the first scenario and this one and the
ones after this one can be a possibility.was telling me earlier today that some of his friends who suck
with it from the beginning became instant dolphins when the market went up to steem hit a value of $2.50.
- Being favoured by one or more whales and them granting a lot of upvotes or direct donations of steem. This one is less
likely. And if anyone has a story of this every happening, please please share :)
- Achieving this through sheer hard work writing and faithfully applying the concept of CANI Constant And Never ending Improvement.
- Don't worry being a whale. Just be content and use this platform as you would reddit or facebook. Plenty of people do that
and there is nothing wrong with it.
I'd live to revisit strategy 4 as there is a lot to be said about that. And there is a huge variable there, which is what our earning power is. Now I am going to give a few sub scenarios here. And of course each of these can grow or shrink. I did some maths and I am doing a very rough estimate of how long it might take to get to minimal whaleship starting from scratch. Also bear in mind the market value of steem will accelerate this or vice versa. And also the more one is earning, the faster it will be as one's steem power will be stronger. Lastly who knows what the next hard fork will do. There is a lot of anticipation that the platform will become more fair and friendly for the majority and it may become more favorable than this forecast. So treat this as though it is for entertainment purposes only ;)
Now let's assume that all steem is reinvested into steem power, and we are talking in steem dollars:
$20 a week
This is a humble figure that most of us can achieve after HF19 before too long as long as we are willing to learn and stay rigorous.
At $20 a week
$80 a month
$960 a year
It will take 52 years if this was the earning rate and it did not change. But of course growth is exponential ;) ANd that would be just a start.
$50 a week
$50 a week
$200 a month
$2400 a year
It will take about 21 years....
$100 a week
$100 a week
$400 a month
$4800 a year
About 10 years
$200 a week
$200 a week
$800 a month
$9600 a year
About 5 years
By now it may not take that long as steem power would have grown and it may not take as long. But lets carry on with the linear concept but take bigger steps and see what happens...
$500 a week
$500 a week
$2000 a month
$24000 a month
A couple of years...
Anything beyond that you are pretty much there or almost there. I think you get the picture. And as I said before we obviously grow from one scenario to the next. And I would look at where I am on there and find out how to improve myself to get to the next level. And again many factors like market price and hard forks can change this and most likely make it better.
And of course a combination of these strategies can be used. Like investing in some steem can make it faster.
So what do you think?
I am curious to hear from you and get your opinions.
Please please please resteem this so countless minnows can see this and even more so I would really love a whale to come and give us some insights. And my effort has earned it, offer me a little upvote and a follow. I wholeheartedly hope that this has added some entertainment or value and I look forward to see as many of you as possible in the comments section. I work hard to answer all replies and in past posts I have met some wonderful people and some of them have taught me so much. Friends from 
Live with Passion, Stay Safe and
May the Steem be With You