Welcome to steemit. It's an interesting platform with a growing community. The categories from whales to minnows isn't necessarily based on success but more classified based on investment weight/ steem power. Steem power is basically the amount of value ($$$$) stored in your account. The higher amount of steem power, the more influence you have on the platform and thus the more exposure is given to your blog post. In conclusion, it help to grow your followers at a faster rate and can accelerate your success, well kinda.

You can buy your way to becoming a whale so, being a whale is not what you should aim to be. Your aim should be to bring something valuable to the platform. In return, with consistency and engagement, you can build a large organic group of followers who are interested in your writting. Doing this isn't hard and to make things easier steemit is still in its early stages of developement. It is very easy to build a large group of interested followers if you work hard enough to make your post attractive and free from grammatical errors.

The fact is, you are now basically a blogger which is cool, right? Don't forget to research blogging tips to help improve your writting skills .You have a great chance to improve and practice your skills here, and later on , you can look for other ways to increase your income stream. It means, you can develop your skills here, while earning some $$, experience and reputation. You can then apply for blogging jobs which can add to your income stream. You can even include monetizing links in your blog from other companies which can also increase your income stream. The path to success is endless! ;-).