The photo above captures my worst day of 2016.
I had been running my PC hard, around the clock, without the air conditioning turned on. I was trying to save on monthly utility bills, as I worked from home, creating media.
But then, of course, something broke -- probably the motherboard, which was already 6-years old at the time.
The problem was, I had no money to fix it and it was my primary tool to earn income.
At the time, I was many months deep into a project that had yet to make any money. Worse, it had eaten up almost all of my resources.
I suppose that's why I snapped the photo. I was in total disbelief at the timing of the event.
After an hour with its guts laid out on my coffee table, repeatedly shorting the power connector with a butter knife, I finally gave up on my PC.
I ordered -- with tons of guilt -- new parts with money that was supposed to be spent on health insurance and tax payments!
Fortunately, as the summer ended, my gamble started to pay off. My income stream became respectable, and heading into Christmas was looking great.
But instead of buying a lot of shiny new things, I would eventually risk most of it on crypto.
You can say that I got lucky -- I just happened to have some extra cash when the markets were booming.
But I've been in crypto since 2011.
That dead Sandy Bridge motherboard, years ago, once held a couple of 6870's that mined 24/7. I've seen a lot of ups and downs.
Sometimes, I notice Steemians saying they're struggling.
I know what's that like. I spent years in the brutal Web/SEO market, and almost a decade as a paid YouTube creator, until they virtually cut off earnings this spring.
So I want to tell them the only advice that continually proves itself true:
You'll get what you deserve when you make the requisite sacrifices.
To get you started on your path to prosperity, leave a thoughtful remark below, and I will blast you a genuine gigafart.
xD
(Need a reason to follow me? I generally upvote every comment, on every post I create.)