Steemit Story-telling Contest -- Doughtaker's entry

^{Author's Note: This entry is for a contest being run by @dimitrisp, which can be viewed here. The picture above is a modified version of the original contest post's intro pic.}

My path to Steemit began as the result of a conversation I had with a friend of mine back in June. My friend had mentioned that he was trying to get into cryptocurrency, and in particular, the altcoins Ethereum and Monero. From this conversation, I became curious and started doing some research about the cryptocurrencies currently around. Many of the cryptocurrencies I read about seemed to have a similar "script for success": pay for a high-quality mining rig with a powerful GPU, and then try your luck. However, one cryptocurrency stood out -- Steem. Steem and the Steemit.com platform didn't try to tout the same "script for success" as the other altcoins, so that got my attention. I browsed around Steemit.com for a while, and then I made the decision to take the plunge and join.

So here I was, with no one introducing me to Steemit, no social network to speak of on Steemit, and on my own trying to figure out what I could do with Steemit, and what might be expected of me. It appeared that I also just happened to join at the worst possible time, shortly after the implementation of HF19. At any rate, I took my time, went through the basic motions of posting, commenting, and curating, and waited to see what results I'd get. I came prepared, knowing that Steemit was not supposed to be a get-rich-quick scheme (something which unfortunately too many newbies fail to realize is an unreasonable expectation anyway). It was, and still is, my plan and intention to be on Steemit for the long-term.

As luck would have it, I ran into something that was not one of the basic actions (posting, commenting, and curating), and which thus far has proven to be much more profitable (money-wise) than going through the basic actions. That something was... contests. Yes, contests -- just like the one I'm entering with this post. I don't sign up for every single contest that I see (nor should anyone attempt it), and I don't automatically enter a contest just because a large prize pool is advertised. I prefer to pick out contests that: (a) interest me, (b) play to my strengths, and/or (c) offer a chance for me to improve my skill in a certain area. As for any prize money that I win, most of that SBD gets plowed back into SP as part of my long-term plans. Thus far, I'm pleased with my results, as those have exceeded my expectations.

And that pretty much sums up my Steemit life so far. Hopefully the future will hold even bigger and better things!