Colour outside of the lines
These are the Steem glory days that will be spoken about with tears in the eyes. Some will reminisce on how hard the battle was fought to reach the heights and others unfortunately, will lament the opportunity lost that was right there for the taking. Well, at least that is the story I tell myself and if the risks I take now payoff, the reward should make up for the effort. Of course, if they don't, I lose a great deal of personal investment and energy plus, I would feel quite the fool. Luckily, I don't mind looking like a fool.
When it comes to Steem, what is the worst that can happen? I can lose everything I have worked for. What is the best? There is no ceiling. If I am going to take risks on something, I am going to look for something that has a great deal more potential upside than downside and that is exactly what Steem is for almost every one of us here.
I have been here for 17 months and have 21,000 SP which has a current value of 28,000 dollars US. I average 8-12 hours a day / 7 days a week on Steem which taking the short side of 8, means I have put in over 4000+ hours in 17 months and have worked for 7 dollars an hour / 6 euros. I can earn at least twice that working at a fast-food chain but the difference here is that I am able to do what I want, when I want. I just tend to do a lot and do it often.
This place has taught me something about myself that no other job ever has and that is, I will work incredibly hard if I think it is worthwhile. I might be naive but I think that there is a lot of value here, much more than people seem to see going on the way they interact and behave. That is their journey though and I have mine which is to move as if this is going to become what I believe it could, value with an incredibly high ceiling
7 dollars an hour isn't much but no employer is going to let me do 60-90 hour weeks as a second job, especially as I still have my own business to run. But, what happens if Steem hits 10 dollars? What that means is these hours are now worth ~6 times as much, 42 dollars an hour. That is pretty good and no fast-food chain is going to pay me that. 100 dollar Steem? That makes these 420 dollar hours. Tell me, how many people in the world are on that kind of salary?
Of course though, this isn't a salary and to get to 100 dollar Steem is going to take a lot of time and effort and most likely, a great deal of luck but, it isn't out of the question either and 20 dollar Steem would still be a very high salary for just about anyone. And what those prices will mean for hundreds of thousands of people will be absolutely life changing for them and, their local communities.
We are trained to follow the rules, colour within the lines, do what is recommended, listen to authority, attach our measures of success and our methods of delivering it to the group since we were young children. We are told what is right and wrong and then as we age, we are surprised at how slowly the world changes and envious of those who are able to break free and do what they want.
Being successful doing what you want takes a massive amount of work and unfortunately, most aren't willing so it becomes a very elite and generally, highly rewarded group. We look at them and treat them as if they are special when what is most likely is that they took the opportunity to work when it was presented and, luck intervened.
Steem is me coloring outside of the lines, doing what I want to do and taking that opportunity to take work by the scruff of the neck and give it my all. Life hasn't been smooth for a long time and we have been getting crushed but, the script is in order, the stage set. All we are waiting on is a little luck to swing our way and turn potential into reality.
While waiting for fortune's pendulum to swing our way, I will keep preparing for its arrival.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Very good reflection about what Steemit is, I barely have 12 months and leave my job for health, but I have not felt better than any, I am my own boss, I work when I want and where I want, without accountability to anyone. waiting for that day when the Steem
I will buy my fridge hahaha. That day is not far away.
We are taking a bit of beating today...
"8-12 hours a day" - Holy Crap!
If something is worth doing, do it properly.
I've got a list with about 400 post ideas but I think that would take me 8 hours a day, so I do a new picture instead!
I was just sitting here thinking about routines and how detrimental they can be if we let them take root and lull us into a deep state of complacency. I was trying to form my thoughts that I was hoping to weave into a future post and then I checked my feed and you have laid it out perfectly with great analogies(I'm still making my post because I need the steem..lol) I have let myself get into a routine of what I feel is comfortable and normal. I have let my dreaming self slouch a bit and rest along the wayside and that is something that is dangerous to creativity and success.
I am not working as near as hard as you or posting as much as I could, but it gets frustrating when you are making less than $1 on most posts, especially after giving up the illusion of success created by using bidbots. I have powered up when I could, wasted too much of bots, and invested small amounts from time to time from my personal finances(it would be much much more if I could get my wife onboard with the dream as well). The road seems hard and treacherous at times, but I KNOW this road is leading to greatness. I feel it in my bones. Convincing my wife of my gut feeling is much more daunting of a task and it is hard to explain to her why I need to keep funneling funds from our life into a system that is paying out so little for my posts.
She knows I am the quintessential dreamer and motivated to make things happen out of sheer will and force of persistence, but even I get weary. I'm sure this is something all steemians go through from time to time.
One of my favorite characteristics of steemit is how the user base always has something to give you mentally and emotionally when you need it. Thanks for giving shape and substance to my thoughts, even if for this one little moment.
absolutely you should :)
I have the same issues although, we have almost nothing left at the moment. Saying 'trust me' doesn't seem to help :D
I go through this in cycles and for the most part, it is tied to the real world issues. When my life is a little easier, I am able to relax and be a little free. I think it comes through my blog too. Lately, life sucks.
You are most welcome and thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
I definitely see the cycle situation with me as well.
My expectation is steem @ $20 . I think that is realistic in the not so far future. If you joined in the last 4-5 months that's a 4x rate of return. unheard of. (not counting avg buying as it fell)
This is going to be a long slow ride and as you said the upswing that is possible will change lives in so many ways.
Steem at $100 and you have a lot of new millionaires and some billionaires. Incredible to think about.
The boat has not left the dock and there are still seats available.
Yet, people are sitting watching from the shore, dreaming of a better life.
While waiting for fortune's pendulum to swing our way, I will keep preparing for its arrival.
You are not waiting alone.
Definitely not. There are more than people think, less than people hope.
Definitely not.
There are more than people think,
Less than people hope.
- tarazkp
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
I think it would really help serious content providers to be able to support evergreen content on Steemit. At this point Steemit is like a publisher who agrees to sell your book for tips for 7 days, after which it is completely free. I really think that the reward should reset after the first 7 day payout. Of course folks could pay to promote an older post or put it onto trending or hot, but it only took me a week or so to learn to ignore those pages. It is best to surf tags and follow people who produce good content.
Proud member of #steemitbloggers @steemitbloggers
The payout window will change with SMTs in time I think as will the ability to dredge evergreen content. I have seen @denmarkguy post with the Steemitbloggers tag but I didn't know it was a community.
Wow! That puts things into perspective! Makes me pretty grateful for how far I've come on Steemit on the small amount of time I can put in.
Also a good way of putting things into perspective. Thats how I viewed it; I won't put any outside money in (not that I can really afford to anyway) so it's just the loss of time that I've put in. I guess that's why I do feel I have to prioritise things in the outernet. If good things happen here on steem then I have some stake and I've made some wonderful connections. If it all collapses then I still made those connections, but I didn't lose anything I couldn't afford to lose.
Toward the end of last year I put a few hundred € in to make sure I was invested with something other than time. It helped but I wish I had a few thousand more now... ;)
There are lots of benefits here outside of the financial aspects and those who have active IRL communities will have made connections forever.
I see Steemit as a "productive" hobby. I rekindled my old blogging enthusiasm and decided that everything I take in here is just icy on the cake.
One day I wonder if people will look back and say “they could have done more.” I think no matter how things end up I’ve been doing as much as I can be. I am accepting of that and whatever the outcomes from that are.
Perhaps I’ll have a wonderful tail to tell of how I became to be that person. If not I’ll just make it up people like happy ending anyways.
If nothing else I have my words that I can take with me. I have friendships. I have a slightly increasing skill set that could enable me to do something else.
For anything to work people at least have to try. Often times more then they like. Success is a shadow and one day I'll out smart it.
"There were threes of us; Dan, Ned and Enjar...."
This is going to valuable in a few years.
I’m trying not to laugh so loud it wakes up everyone else right now. Thank you for that :)
I will wait patiently with you. Not all the eggs in the one basket but let us just say most of them. I am just going to wait patiently building the nest egg and wait for a KABOOM lol. It will come don't ask me why I just know.