I still consider myself a newbie here, even though I have been here several months… Maybe I am just a slow learner, but I am still having trouble understanding various things. I did read the White paper… once in full… (my head just spun) then I refer back to it now and then… Every once and a while I get an ahhha moment where I say… Oh that is what they mean… that is how it works… why didn’t I understand that the first three times I read it???
One thing that I feel every new person should do is search for and actively participate in contests. The first one that I won was…
A sports picture contest… I was the only entrant… .464 SBD
THEN….
The second time I won a contest I won more…
https://steemit.com/charlesfuchs/@stackin/winner-of-the-stackin-binance-contest-who-won-the-usd10-upvote
I did not say the second time I entered a contest I won… Most big contests that I see, are filled with comments like, I never win … I never win… Wow, that sucks and some similar verbiage… Did I mention that I see comments that say… I never win??? I won my first contest because I was the only person who entered… I probably entered about 35 or so, but there are tons of contests out there, but of course 
I will give a 100% upvote to the first three comments that I like below...:-) My first contest...