You have blazed quite a trail here, serving as a testament that one need not be on a whales autovote to grow here. I think you were wise not to waste your money on votes to get to trending, as you usually will lose on that and not get the right eyes usually even on the post. I think the only ones who win at that are the delegators to those vote bots who don't have time to curate.

The One Thing I Did Do

I invested. I put in fiat.

I wish more would do this. I am a testament that one can be little more than a temporary go between from paycheck to bill holders, yet even I was able to do a little and plan on more. Everything just feeds on itself growing faster as you grow some stake. So many come here thinking what they can take from here and never ponder growing something and adding their own to make it grow.

You inspired me to make up a little excel sheet with how much Steem would have to be at for me to have x amount of dollar value. Doesn't look as impressive as your numbers, but I do believe that Steem will one day be as valuable as Ethereum is right now and that would already put me in a position to wipe out debt and broaden investments.

Looking forward to seeing how we have fared by the close of this year. Keep up the great work, those coming in now need to see this is doable.