Have you ever been a poor difference maker?  I have been many different times in my life.  For some topics I don't regret it but for others I felt like I spent so much time and no one ultimately cared and I never got rewarded.  

1) Money is often times stored energy and time. 

I'm sure everyone out there has skills that have taken years or even decades to acquire.  Whether it is a hobby or a technical skill overtime you can become a subject matter expert in your field.  I don't consider myself the greatest web developer but I have been doing web design and development for over 10 years.  The skills I have in that field have been an accumulation of learning over that span of time.  I'm constantly learning new things and that field constantly evolves.  So at this point if a company wants a complex eCommerce website built for them they have to understand that whoever is going to work on it isn't going to be doing it for free or for cheap.  

For websites like Facebook.com, Amazon.com, eBay.com, Alibaba.com ......etc you quite possibly have some of the best developers in the world working on those platforms.  Steemit.com is no different.  The amount of knowledge require to program on this level is extremely rare.  Blockchain technology is so new and complex that to put all these pieces together is so rare from a skills stand point.  On top of that it is safe to say that not everyone could conceptually program on this level.  

It is just like athletics.  No matter how hard I would train and even if I was in the best training situation with unlimited resources I would never run as fast as Usain Bolt.  Personally I would never run under 10 seconds in the 100 meter dash.

For Usain Bolt he possesses a rare skill that came about because of genetics and decades of training.  

If he earned $0 from running I can tell you that he would have never ran near as fast as we have seen him run.  The support and the reward structure wouldn't be there for him to do so.  

Whether the Steemit Whales are some of the top developers or if they caught a huge ride in Bitcoin or Ethereum or some other related technology it would be safe to say that they want rewarded for all their insight and hard work.  Work and research that few possess and that has taken years or even decades to get to this point.  

2) When You Get Rewarded On Here You Work Even Harder

You might have jumped on and saw that people were making mad cash and you wanted to have some of that success as well.  It might have came right away or maybe your level of success has been smaller than other people's but none the less even if you get an upvote that gives you a jump it makes you really happy.  I got upvoted on a comment by @dantheman and recieved over $200 for it.  I was so happy and it changed my entire day and I started working harder than I have worked in a long time.  It is no different for the Whales.  When they get to take a little bit of money out and enjoy their hard work it is going to make them happy and willing to work even harder.  

Why should you be able to reward yourself by taking a little bit of money out for your hard work but the guys who spent an incredible amount of time developing this system shouldn't?  GET REAL! 

3) We Always Want More 

You might look at the amount of power the Whales posses and think that they are set for life.  That may be true but have you ever thought that maybe their goal wasn't to be millionaires operating a platform that is a fraction of a percent as popular as Facebook or other platforms?  

They are probably working toward becoming world recognized entrepreneurs and billionaires possibly the worlds first Trillionaires.  Sounds crazy?  It actually isn't if you extrapolate the math out over a longer amount of time and assume the platform takes over the world.  

4) They Love What They Do And Believe In The System

They would have never put this much work in and made a platform that is this transparent if they didn't believe in it and love it.  When I was in college I knew a guy that was constantly creating computer programs to solve puzzles and would continually try to make the programs more efficient.  These weren't even class assignments.  This was just his hobby and it was like he never got burnt out on it.  That always blew my mind but I realized that because of this he would become a great programmer and I wouldn't.  Programming has always been slightly painful for me.  I feel like I'm better at blogging which is great because I can be rewarded for it on here!  

5) Great Entrepreneurs Never Really Retire

They just keep going!  Retirement is a middle class concept.  You might as well leave the idea behind at this point if you want to be great!  

6) They are playing a longer term game.  Anything short of it would be short sighted.  

Everyone has their own strategy on here.  Some are pumping all their Steem Dollars into Steem Power and some people are taking some earnings off the table.  I took basically $200 off the table to go through it and say I made something and also to prove to others that the earnings are real.  At this point I'm mainly focused on powering up and building my blog and brand so that when people see the name @brianphobos they know they are looking at quality insightful content.  I'm in it for the long term.  If I wasn't then I wouldn't power up and I would slop post together.  

Money the whales are taking off the table can just be temporary just like you taking a little bit of Steem Dollars off the table and converting to #BTC to diversify or to convert that to USD to pay some bills.  We can power down and then turn the power down off.  If you see @dan and @ned no longer have the power down turned on.  

Now @dantheman is scheduled for a powerdown and I'm not sure if that is a second account for @dan.  Quite frankly I don't care and it doesn't phase me.  

Summary

- If you created a company wouldn't you want to sell some stock after the IPO? 

- If you had a rental property wouldn't you collect rent?  

- If you invested in a CD wouldn't you expect interest? 

Small withdraws from the whales isn't a big deal.  Even if it pushes the market down slightly for a little bit.  If you are on this platform for the long haul there is so much upside for everyone it is UNREAL!  

If you changed the world wouldn't you hope that you could at least enjoy the finer things in life?  

(The Steem Peeps image is part of an image I saw on a post I upvoted from @originate) 

#steem #steemit #powerdown #powerup #interest #entrepreneurs