The Good Whale woke up one morning...
and decided to give.
He looked across the vast ocean and saw minnows and dolphins and orcas swimming through the sea, not to mention all the delicious plankton he and the rest of the big fish would be having for breakfast. He and his pod were always the first to eat.
Everyday they'd make a wall, swimming towards the clouds of red they opened their giant mouths. They took hundreds and thousands in a single bite, gobbling the delicious planktons up. It was the start of feeding season and the whales were eating well. Everyday new plankton came, and even if they tried to escape they were sucked in by the giant whale mouths.
The little fish felt like they never had a chance to eat their own plankton. The whales were eating them in such vast quantities that once they were finished there were only a few scraps left, hardly enough for all of the little fish and not enough to feed them all. Because of this the little fish started to suffer, losing vast quantities to starvation. Some left, seeing the hopeless situation, to find new fishing grounds.
The rest in their weakened state, had no chance whenever the dolphins came...
The little fish were being picked apart by the swift and coordinated dolphin attack. The fish that did survive, the strong ones, grew larger and fast enough to escape and thrive. They thought they would be strong enough to survive any attack at this point. That was of course, until the orcas came along.
The powerful orcas worked as a team to confuse the big fish, sending them right into the mouths of the others. They never stood a chance. Only a handful survived. It was bloodbath after bloodbath. Everyday more of the big strong fish were smoked and canned by the deadly orcas.
The Good Whale had seen this for months, all the death and destruction, all the fish leaving for bluer waters. He knew it was unsustainable for the whales, dolphins, and orcas. Pretty soon they'd be eating each other. He'd been formulating a plan for weeks, and this morning he was going to implement it.
The Good Whale swooped in towards the giant red clouds, scooping millions of plankton in his giant mouth. Then he made his way towards the small fish. The small fish tried to run, they the Good Whale approaching fast. They turned their backs and swam as fast as they could. Then they saw something strange, the Good Whale swam right past them! A giant trail of red in his wake. But the red wasn't blood from the fish, it was plankton. The Good Whale was feeding them!
After a few days of this the fish started growing stronger. They had more meat on their bones so the bigger fish, all the dolphins and orcas, needed to eat fewer of them. They started following the Good Whale, because he lead them to the strongest fish.
The other whales, seeing the results of the Good Whale, began stealing his strategy. They too gained many new friends, and with the newfound health of the sea, the plankton levels increased every year until all were well fed and happy.
The Frustration of the Little Fish
One of the most frustrating things of steemit when we're first starting out is the wealth disparity. You get here, and you're all excited, making those pennies on your posts and comments, and then maybe you even make a buck on a whales post. You think:
"Hey, this is pretty sweet, social media where I get payed!"
So you start following more whales, you look for whales since they're the only ones who can help you in the short term. You don't really like their posts anymore than the posts your plankton neighbor is whipping up, but he can't increase your value as much as a whale can.
You keep going like that, finding more content that you enjoy and following those people. You might start to notice that the people really being rewarded are writing about steem and crypto, so you start focusing on that more. Getting into writing about crypto, but it doesn't land like their posts do. It's not your expertise or your passion, but not many other topics are popular yet.
You're flopping around on dry land while all the other big fish are swimming in an ocean of steem coins.
You see someone make a hundred dollars streaming a video game, you see someone make a hundred with a meme, next up you see someone with a post similar to yours, it's shorter and looks like it took them ten minutes compared to the hour and a half you put into yours, but theirs has 100+ votes and $100+ on it with dozens of comments while yours made $0.20.
It's not fair, you think to yourself.
Eventually after a few days or weeks your enthusiasm dwindles. Those amazing ideas to help grow and build the community, to create a great contest you thought would bring you followers, or the desire to comment with enthusiasm just aren't there that day. You feel down, like you aren't good enough to survive here. Like it's a popularity contest and all the popular kids were already made before you even got here. You're the new kid at school, and only a couple of the existing kids even noticed you.
This is what it's like for most new kids.
I don't even put myself in that boat, because I'm one of the lucky ones. 
Those Silly Rookies
Now I know most of the experienced steemians here are thinking: You gotta put in the work. or New people don't understand the nuances. or People don't realize how much money and effort some of us have put into the platform.
And they're right, the whales here deserve to be whales for a couple of potential reasons:
- They invested early on in steemit
- They've improved the platform with 3rd party apps, discussions, content, and networking
- They had a following before they came here, and brought some of them with them
- Their content or personality makes their blog magnetic
- They know how to use the platform effectively
It's easy to feel that things aren't fair on the site, and it's true it does seem unfair. Steemit in it's current form has a steep learning curve. You've got to put in time and effort, and direct it in the right areas. So many people come on here and think it will be easy to build a following and net some steem when they don't know anyone here yet.
So Where Are All the Good Whales
They're here, maybe you just don't see what they're doing that is good. Most of the whales I see are very active on the site, half of them are running for witness, half of them are working hard on 3rd party apps, and voting bots, and programs to help minnows. They're creating discord channels and discussing how to improve the platform and creating great content everyday to help us all succeed.
Just look at the pages for people like 
Like anything, steemit requires effort for success. We can't come on here expecting to blow up overnight and make thousands of dollars. We need to build ourselves up, at whatever rate is appropriate in our own lives. I know I'm busy, sometimes I feel like I don't have the time I'd like to have to be dedicating to steem. I'm sure a lot of us feel that way, and when we do dedicate time it doesn't seem worth it. This is where our perspective is off from reality.
In reality anyone can succeed here if they are driven enough and inventive enough. Steem is place where we can create, and some creations will always be valued above others. Each creation has inherent value, but with the low number of active users compared to the quantity of different niches out there, some people may not find massive success at first. But then again, some people will:
As you now know, I was one of the two in the 1kSP program that 
Perception vs Reality
Yesterday I was listening to 
Our perception is that the payout system is unfair, but we fail to take in the reality of what has brought success to people, and the reality that it costs $0 to start here. We forget what some people have already done here, how they've become whales and orcas and dolphins, while we're floundering, trying to become mighty minnows.
I think we need to shift our mindset away from comparing ourselves to people who were already here. TO keep our expectations in check and see how much more success we find by contributing to steemit's success, rather than just reaping the rewards. Then the rewards will come organically, we get in what we put out.
What Else Can the Whales Do
I feel like most whales are doing a great job already. Many of them delegate SP, take new users under their wings, and work on improvements. And really, I think that we will see more delegations towards users that whales notice and want to support as time goes on.
The potential for whales to eventually change the world is actually pretty big. We could see whales making large donations and delegations of steem to those in need, we could see them rewarding high quality content, and we could see them creating their own programs to bring value and opportunities to the people who are trying to improve the world.
That's why it's so important to support the whales and other users that you want to support. The people who are acting and creating on this platform in ways that make you feel good about the platform. Just being on steemit has given me hope for humanity. There are so many kind and generous people here trying to make a difference, express authentically, and create amazing things here, that I can't help but be excited to be involved.
Could we see more delegations and spreading of rewards? Absolutely, but who are we to decide who receives them? We only have our vote, and everyone else has theirs. The whales are all choosing where their support and rewards go to the best of their ability. Sure there are a few who are selfish, a few who only vote themselves and don't interact or try to grow the community. But the majority seem like really good people doing their best to make steemit great.
Everytime I catch myself getting negative I just have to ask myself - Am I here to make a quick buck, or am I here to be a part of great change and progress for humanity? I always know I'm here for the latter, I believe in the ability of steemit and blockchain to change the world for the better. I think we should all ask ourselves the same question.
I hope everyone enjoyed my quick story and write-up about some of the problems steemit faces. It can be easy to give up here because of our misconceptions and thinking. I think the biggest pieces for creating success here are community and giving. Work towards giving more and communicating more and you will inevitably find success here.