The only reason I was unable to post anything for more than 30 hours now is that I was busy teaching my 13 year old cousin how to blog. He lives more than 200 kilometer away from my place. I went to meet the family and, basically, help my cousin learn how to blog.
The boy with spectacles is eldest among the siblings.
He's not only a cousin to me. He sees me as a teacher too because I love teaching (you may guessed from the dozens of guides I posted on Steemit) and he seems to love studying from me. However, the teaching role is not just academically motivated. I try to work with him on mini projects to instill the firm belief in him that he is capable and can learn and do anything.
My constant effort is to liberate him from the limited mindset that school installs and bring out his creativity and passion. He has a brilliant mind and is a quick learner. His creative abilities are also raring to be utilized.
I have a dream for him. A dream that I wish him to embrace as his own. A Steemit dream!
20 Hour Rule
Why I'm referring it will be clear after this paragraph. But the 20 Hour Rule by Josh Kaufman is a hypothesis to counter the scariness of the popular 10,000 Hours Rule mentioned in the famous book of Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers : The Story of Success. Summary is; Gladwell says you need 10,000 hours to master anything while Kaufman reminds that 20 hours are enough to become good enough at anything.
I opened YouTube and started searching for a video that I could show to my cousin. This TED Talk by Josh Kaufman came up.
When we finished watching this video, I suggested that both of us should test the authenticity of this 20 hour thing by doing experiments with it. He agreed. I suggested I learn Spanish and he learns blogging and see what we accomplish in 20 hours. He agreed again.
So I asked him to take help of Mr Google to make an email address for himself and then again to make a WordPress blog. It was two weeks ago, when I had stayed at his family's for a day and night. I came back and the next week he had made his blog. I was so happy and proud of him!
Why won't I be proud!
I met him yesterday and we had quite a lot to do. I gave him a detailed overview on how WordPress blog worked and how to customize it. I also helped write better organized and formatted content by explaining the editor items for him.
Other than blogging, I also installed typing master in the notebook that he gets to use so that he can improve his typing speed and take less time to write a blog.
Why WordPress? Why Not Steemit?
Because I do not want him to make rookie mistakes when he joins Steemit. Also, by posting thrice or more per week and getting zero rewards for months, he will develop an attitude to work without rewards and purely from skill development point of view. Having earned nothing from his all previous blogging efforts, he will be thank for each 0.001 Steem or SBD that he is going to get on Steemit. That is very important.
By learning how to create blog posts on a free WordPress blog, he will be able to create great content when he finally joins Steemit.
The Steemit Dream
My dream, that I want him to make his own by his own choice, is simple. He is in grade six and has a lot of raw brain power.
In a year, I wish to see him pay his school bills by himself through Steemit blogging. In two years, I wish to see him teach every other kid in the family how to blog and then bring them to Steemit. In four years, I wish to see him become one of the significant contributors to the economy of home. When he's 18 years old, I wish to see him totally self sufficient and independent of financial worries.
All this will be powered by Steemit. He will always have me by his side, ready to help. But he will have to put in work to achieve any of these dreams. I gave him hints but haven't told him in detail about my dream.
Will he embrace this dream when I explain it to him?