I have so many different things going through my head after reading this, so I'm giving them to you, bullet style:

• From where I'm sitting, you totally know what you're doing here, but perhaps you don't believe that. I think you have to trust yourself, have faith in your abilities and truly believe in your numerous, positive and helpful contributions that you make here on a daily basis.
• I just read @spiritualmax's post and left a huge "Queen-like" comment haha. I was serious with it though; have a read if you'd like, but if he follows through with his experiment, I hope it fails miserably, in terms of his expectations. Personally, I would much rather focus on those who are doing good things, like you, as opposed to wasting my time and energy with those who will probably never change.

• But that doesn’t change the fact that you won’t become a success by just being the girl next door.

That kind of describes me, so I'm going to respectfully disagree:) I don't think "shock-value" is your answer, because it's only good for a little immediate attention, and then you're forgotten, because there is no substance to it. There is however substance in genuine posts, genuine comments, kindness, helpfulness, selflessness. Look at your "appreciation post"! It was a huge success, because it was real and the quantity of comments showed me that a lot of people feel the same.

• I don’t have anything special to offer like for example @abh12345 who has his database skills, or @spiritualmax

That's where you are wrong @simplymike, because you do have something special to offer, and that something special is you. And I'm not being all rainbows and unicorns when I say that:) Every single one of us has a story; your dreadlocks and piercings have a story; your life; your history; all of it is your story!! And people are interested in it. Seriously, why the hell do people get dreadlocks? I've always wanted to know that...and I'm not kidding. You have a huge personal story; we all do, it's just that it has become so normal for the one living it, that it doesn't seem "blog worthy". But it is. I think it was @abh12345 that once said to me, everyone here is so different, the only thing we all have in common is steemit. The rest is worth writing and hearing about.

• "Do or do not, there is no try"

My suggestion, for what it's worth, is "try" :)