We have all experienced those moments during our Hive journey that are memorable. It could be when a post you wrote got more engagement than expected. Or the time you connected with an influential person in the community who helped promote your content. Maybe it was setting a new personal record for upvotes or comments received. Then there are those rare occasions where you actually made a difference in someone's day by helping out- those acts of kindness that remind us why we're here.
But for me, everything else pales in comparison to what happened one afternoon after I hit the publish button on an article. I’m sure you’ve had your own though; those times that made all the effort feel worth it. This post is meant to recollect my best moment ever and hopefully give others some inspiration along the way.
Discovering My Niche Community
At first, Hive seemed like this huge, intimidating place to me. There were so many different tags and users; how was I supposed to know what I belonged to? For lack of better ideas, I started writing about random things every now and then in hopes something would stick – but without any consistent community to interact with, it was hard getting noticed.
Everything changed when I found leofinance. Being interested in cryptocurrency and finance, I was excited by their talks on crypto and blockchain innovation. So I started posting new project reviews and market updates there regularly. In the comments, I would engage in thoughtful conversations that made me realize how much these people loved the industry.
With time, particularly after Thread arrived, familiar names began to pop up more frequently. We supported each other’s work by upvoting and commenting. Some even started seeing me as a trustworthy source which felt amazing! It was an incredible feeling being part of such an enthusiastic specialized community like this one; a community which will later be responsible for my tipping point into success.
My Breakout Post
Around two months of daily activity on leofinance, it struck me that I could write about this little-known NFT lending protocol that allows users to borrow crypto against their NFTs as collateral. To give a detailed description of its lending system, possible use cases, risks involved and who created the project among other things. I had to spend hours researching it. When publishing this post, just like always, I didn’t expect anything much as usual.
But in 5 minutes, the influencial Leo.voter upvoted an unbelievable $20, the maximum amount I have ever seen on my posts here. I was stunned and refreshed my page to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. It seemed like the Leo.voter had been waiting for me to say something about the new protocol. Then more upvotes came from leofinance users who obviously found the information useful.
I can’t even explain how good it felt to see that post take off immediately. The time I spent on the NFT lending research I had conducted and written about clearly struck a chord with people. It was especially satisfying to know that the Leo voter valued my work enough to max out their vote right away. This influx of positive feedback made me feel alive again as a creator.
The Feelings at that Moment
The memory of sitting on my couch, clutching my phone and smiling ear to ear as each upvote rolled through, will never leave me. All those nights staying up late researching and writing were worth it times a million just to have people connect with what I put out there like that. There is no way to describe the validation and happiness I felt at that very moment in time.
It was energizing to think that a person of influence in the community like 
Above all, I was happy because I had been able to help others learn something. It’s when our creations benefit the communities we interact with everyday on Hive that it becomes special. My article took off one magical moment and I won’t ever forget about it. Those are the types of experiences which drive me into continuously creating engaging well-researched works.
Lessons from the Experience
There were many important lessons learnt during those few seconds after breakthroughs happened; here they are:
The first thing is finding your content niches within Hive communities that will lead you towards success. This was evident as I kept posting relevant articles full of information backed up by research onto leofinance where eventually relationships started building along with trust due to consistency shown over an extended period.
It also taught me never to give up because eventually hard work pays off, no matter how long or short it takes for things to fall into place. When people see quality content they respond positively which means there’s always an audience thirsty for detailed presentation skills where readers can support creators who add value through their understanding and knowledge about any given topic.
The most important was learning to rely on myself and the work I put out to the world. That validation gave me confidence to try riskier things with bigger post ideas. Now each piece is made with the belief that concerted attempts will touch other people.
Waiting for more such moments
That one successful post was so great that I’ve been chasing something similar ever since. None of my wins have made me feel quite like that first big upvote did; and that’s what keeps me consistently working towards creating quality content.
My hope is that there will be more magical moments where a post exceeds all expectations. It could be some deep industry analysis or just an entertaining story; maybe even something that sparks a real discussion among people who read it. I don’t know! All I know is if I keep focusing on making quality value adding content for communities like leofinance, then one day another breakthrough could happen too.
Conclusion
To conclude, I should repeat that it is important to find your niche and believe in what you are doing. You may not succeed at first shot but if you try hard enough for the right people, something may click and resonate with them like magic. That was my breakout post and no other accomplishment has made me feel this good since then.
I highly suggest always putting out helpful well researched works that add value in communities that cater specifically for those types of content. And with these moments I know more will come which makes all effort worthwhile in the first place. But most importantly I hope after reading about my experience someone somewhere got motivated along their Hive journey.
So now over to you, what has been your greatest moment on Hive? What drives or motivates you everyday?
This is my submission for the #iucontest weekly writing challenge.
Check out the link to announcement post for more details about the challenge.
The attached image is from Leofinance image gallery.