Thoughts on collaboration

It is quite easy to be selfish and to think just of our own benefit because that is built in in our human nature most of us think first in our happiness and joy than on other people. Why should we make others happy and make them feel good? It is well know that happiness is created from sharing good things and feeling fulfill of the happiness you were able to generate. People tend to want happiness as soon as possible and that is fine, who would like to feel sad and unhappy?
When we start changing our behavior and making everyone that surround us happy or at least less unhappy we start feeling something, some kind of joy that lights up a smile in our heart and all of a sudden we are happy, we are sharing happiness. So what does this have to do with steemit? I often see lots of new users that are usually referred as #newbies or #noobs by gamers and here known as #minnows (which some are not even plankton) and that very terminology might cause some people to feel sad and unhappy. But what does plankton and minnows do? They feed the bigger fishes and what is the very first reaction of everyone in this platform including myself, go find a bigger fish and be friend of him and hopefully eat something from the left overs, I don't know if my mind is just playing with me but I feel I am like a like minnow hiding in the rocks and seeing all the dolphins fighting sharks and just hearing how big whales sing and move the water on a very far distance, but there I found myself thinking on what I could do to collaborate and grow along with others.
I've been trying to encourage, help, guide, offer my time, promote the platform, join communities and be part of bigger projects and everything just feels like staying in the safe zone, just like in Nemo movie we are in the Coral reef and just enjoying the safety that it provides. Sometimes I've witness some small fishes sometimes called redfish explore the vast ocean and even join in s trip with a few others supporting each other and being successful, some friendly dolphins have managed to protect them and also attract few little whales or some whales just still in their youth years, but together they keep still and I don't know where will they get to but I'm sure they will comeback to visit us and be stronger and help us.

_{Take from here}

That is ideally my dream, people often join @minnowsupport project but not all keep supporting it, delegating to it or even just being part of the community by just sharing their link the #upvote channel, and that is totally fine. @helpie is another great community specially if you are invited to just be part of it and constantly engage in their trivias and posts, even just be there in the community but just a few will keep supporting back with votes and delegation. I'm also part of @qurator and @steembasicincome and basically you just need to be there, enjoy the benefits of supporting them and keep on creating great content while they help you grow up and you do that as well, collaboration is key. Lastly I would like to invite you to join some other great projects like @adollaraday, @treeplanter and the community we are trying to build up called @forestfriendly which gather people from the Bamenda region who are joining Steemit to support their real life activities, people who are facing war, poverty and pollution. The @treeplanter project is focused on reforestation and preservation along with @kedjom-keku and co-funder @martin.mikes, together they are working for the community and creating a better place. Currently @treeplanter is trying to promote its usage as a donation tool to help us sustain and grow our activities and positive impact the community by offering a vote to those who are sending donations, ideally people will send a donation to our project and vote someone else's post that way we are collaborating because that donation will also help someone else grow and hopefully further spread the project's goal and news. But human natures comes first and lots of people use it for their own benefit not really enjoying the 2 times vote weight offered to vote others and just getting 1.2 times the donated amount. I know everyone has to grow and I've used it for my own benefit and that is how I actually get to know @martin.mikes and joined the ship in this journey. But I strongly encourage to better use the @treeplanter project to help and sustain people, maybe you will really love someone sending you that nice surprise and joy will come fast and draw a smile in your heart. Please be kind and support those projects who are supporting others and making steemit a better platform. Please try to spread the word and use every benefit with care by sharing it with your own followers, and those who made it this far I encourage you to share this post and hopefully comment with your thoughts and ideas on how to make steemit a better, more collaborative and supportive platform for new users. Thanks for reading and I hope something from this post will move the waters and make #minnows unite together and grow along just like the @feedyourminnows project from @scrooger and @oleg326756, another project I almost forgot to mention @make-a-whale, check them out and be part of them.

PS: any support will be welcome, I'm really trying hard to reach rep 60 :P

@raserrano - Developer

	@kedjom-keku	Conservation Association
	@treeplanter	Fund-raising upvoting bot
	@forestfriendly	Water Saving bees

---