Today I saw the administrator of the Cultural Center where I work and the first thing she did was to congratulate me on my online activities.
I don't suppose she have seen any of my Steem stuff but she is on Facebook and might have seen my daily organ improvisations, Pinky and Spiky comics, and the accounts about my organ recitals that I share there too.
I told her that for a few years nobody paid any attention but if you don't give up, sooner or later they start to understand you are being serious.
It's like Ghandi said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win."
I told her we live in a world when she or I could reach any person in the world through 6 or less connections.
Any president of the world, any celebrity or any relatively unknown person, litterally anybody.
Theoretically if I wanted to reach President Trump, I could do it in 5 or 6 connections. I have two circles of people to do it. It's true. I have made the calculations in my mind.
It doesn't mean I would have his permission to reach out, though, haha! I have to earn the privilege to ask, I have to earn his trust.
But President Trump is just an example, a symbol. There are real people whom I'd like to reach. But first I have to earn their trust.
And I can earn this privilege by showing up and sharing my work in places online where these people congregate.
It's still strange to me that so few organists in my country understand the value of showing up.
After I created YouTube channels for a few of them, recently I checked how they are doing and except of a few initial videos they are dormant.
Probably they posted a few times and after they saw not enough engagement, they stopped bothering.
But this is a mistake. They say it takes 7 years to be an overnight success. It takes that long to build a tribe of people who want to hear from you.
Of course, when we first start, we are not sure if this is going to work down the road. But this is the only way now.
Because we no longer need anybody's persmission to do our work. People who understand this early on are more likely to reap benefits later on.
We don't need the whole world to listen to us. Just a few people for starters. If our work is good enough to spread, they will tell their friends.
If it's not, we'll do it again and again until it is.
On Steem it works the same way. Plus it's even better. Besides the platform to share our work, we have a chance to get paid for it.
Of course, there are many variables, how much trust, stake and influence do you have on the platform. But this too can be earned by dilligently showing up and engaging with your closest fans in a way that is helpful to them. And it could be facilitated by investing in Steem. Because if you have more SP, your work will attract even more people.
Let's hope the bear market will end soon and we can see the benefits of showing up and building trust.