What I have now- my income - is a business. I create revenue from my own skills.
People pay me for what I do.

By definition, that's business.

By my definition , it's making enough to get along. I play at it, and not work at it...

It is not business.

My definition doing business is grabbing market share, expanding, growing bigger and 'out businessining' your competitors until they are dust.
Kill your competitors through fair practice, hard work, and ethical principals.
(if you are not applying these principles, you're just corrupt).

I see the proposals, and 'feel nice' perspectives on steemit, and it makes me cringe.
I see no killer instinct.
Just nice 'fluffy words', and no substance.

I'll give you very brief example of how I opened up a business from zero, made a splash, and crushed the competition.
Then compare with words of 'innovations' 'going forwards' ....blah blah...

At a time when there are various people doing various things on steemit, (some of them asking for funding) - it's time for real business questions to be asked of these 'fluffy feel good' word salads.

And anything less than solid business answers is not good enough. (except for the gullible maybe).

What you are doing? .....are the answers that people want.

Anything less is defensive posturing, playing the politician, and it just tells people you actually have no idea of what you are doing, and are just winging it and hoping for some cheap investment money off people sold on unicorns- in the hope it will 'all work out... somehow'.

I will give you my own brief example, and then I might go asking some hard questions..
There are no concepts, no big pictures, no 'when's' or if' or anything else of that nature.
This is what I did.
(I can only use my own examples, this is no ego trip).
The model doesn't transfer to the tech world, as far as I can see - but the nuts and bolts method, do.

I opened a backpacker hostel. No one knew it existed.
3 weeks before I opened I stayed in in every hostel within 30 miles radius - to work out what was going on, suss the competition. I had no experience in this.
Staff were already hired, and waiting for the opening.

5:00 am - I was out at the greyhound bus stations and amtrak, selling my hostel to backpackers.

80% of my time was doing this, (around 16 hours a day for the first 6 months),also going to airports to get the name out.
Touting was illegal, I cared not - it was about results and making money - and not some government approval.
Within 2 years we were in 'the rough guide',(a backpacker bible at the time) and because of my aggressive touting skills (that were honed to perfection by this time) - I was given 'first scoop' of any backpackers coming off the trains buses or planes.

Other hostel reps would not try to compete with me.
My customer service was excellent - but I scared the shit out of my competition.

I then had 'free beer night's' in my hostel.
Two times a week.
I would keep providing beer for anyone that wanted it, for a few hours.
It was more profitable to buy beer, and give them hangovers and then not move on in the mornings (out of the hostel), than it was to spend time at the stations replenishing empty beds.

The reputation was growing and advanced bookings came in by the bucket load... So much so, that I didn't even have to find any customers anymore.

'Free stuff' grows business.

This then gave me the time to look for other premises - several hundred miles away - to open another hostel there, and provide everything between the two hostels.
Customer service was the key to lot of $$$$$'s
One backpacker then became 2 backpackers - with 2 hostels- as far as income went....

Ok, that's very brief and I have missed lot's out of course.

My point being ...

This is what I DID. There is no concept, there is action. I knew what my idea was, right from the beginning, and right up to looking for new hostels.

I was clear on where I was headed...
If someone had asked me at the beginning of the venture - I would have been able to tell them exactly the same as what I actually did do.
Crystal clear.

What are these new ventures doing? . Actually, DOING...nuts and bolt doing.
Their plan?

such as ...
'We are spending 18 hours a day, seven days week on twitter, instagram, and facebook - out target is 200 new users per week..here are our results week by week, with new users names, who signed up...'

^^^ this could be total bollocks^^^, obviously - I have no idea of this business - I'm just trying to show the difference between 'nuts and bolt' answers and pie in the sky 'ideas and concepts, innovations, man'.

As I read more and more steemit stuff, the obvious things are not being asked.
Is this just naivety of life, and people trying to sound cleverer than they are?
I don't know.

Here's what I do know, unless you have clear thinking, pragmatic individuals at the top...

... you're fucked.

Which bring me to the 'leaders' of these projects.

They need to be under the microscope in terms of questions asked about their projects, and drilled down on, until the answers are forthcoming.
For those 'leaders' charlatans that avoid clear answers, be careful.

If they are not crystal clear in their own heads about the business model and it's direction - then how on earth can anything be built from it????

If they cannot answer clearly enough because it is all 'steem' (pun intended) in their heads, what hope does it have?

Seriously, if you are looking at steemit seriously, it's time to be serious, and enough of this 'fluffy feel good', shit.
Start doing.

Start asking hard questions to those who have taken up the mantle of 'doing things'.
Straight honest questions.

And accpet nothing less than straight, honest answers. Nothing less will do.

Ask these questions to these 'new projects' - because only those with good solid answers are going anywhere... (if hard work, and not good fortune, is the metric).

Looking at steemit, I see the 'feel good factor' being paramount over pragmatism on this site, and I have very little faith in what I see so far, tbh...(not the tech, I know nothing, but the people).

Oh yeah...

Why I stopped doing business...

Because to be good at it, you have to commit- 150 % - and be single minded, hard, and relentless.
I was all those things - and it made me into someone I didn't like...There is always a price to pay, nothing is free.

...so I quit.

But if you don't have those killer instincts - you will lose.
Why?
Because someone you don't know yet, WILL have them - and you can't compete with that.
Don't delude yourself into ever thinking that you can.

You can't.

...and I'm not getting back into this particular arena, thank you very much...

I like the Me I am, now.

.....I might go looking and ask some people some hard questions, though- in the name of wanting steemit to succeed, which I really do.
....Let's start to cut the chaff from wheat, shall we...?
It's a start.
And it's necessary.