Getting Into The Top 1,000 Steemians - How Feasible Is It?

_{image from steemwhales.com}

Over the last few days I’ve been cruising the Steem blockchain, digging into a wide range of insightful posts. A few favorites:

@lexikon082 Celebrating 2 Months of Sobriety
https://steemit.com/life/@lexikon082/alcoholism-celebrating-two-months-of-sobreity-by-helping-someone-i-care-for

@stackin goes crazy and buys even more Steem Power
https://steemit.com/life/@stackin/am-i-nuts-why-did-i-just-buy-more-steem-power

But the post that really got my attention was this:

@nepd Celebrates Becoming a Top 1,000 Steemian!
https://steemit.com/steem/@nepd/movin-on-up-just-broke-into-the-top-1000-in-steem-power-according-to-steemwhales-com

….damn!

It made me realize that I’ve been thinking pretty small. I know I want to do well on Steemit, but the top 1k seems like such a big thing. There are a lot of really influential and awesome people here. Could I reach the upper echelons?

Clear goals are the essence of achievement. Knowing where you are headed is the first step towards getting there. I’ve been running as fast as I can, but with no destination in mind!

Being a Top 1,000 Steemian

Imagine meeting somebody on the street. They seem like an average person. Then they say an amazing fact: They run one of the top 1,000 most popular Facebook pages.

You might be shocked. I’d be starstruck. Top 1k on Facebook? That’s huge as fuck!

Now let's focus back on Steem: We aren’t as big as Facebook now. I’ll go ahead and be honest, I do not think we will ever “topple” FB, they’re too well established to be taken down barring a major blunder by Zuckerburg and crew.

But even if Steemit grew to 1% of Facebook’s size, we would have many millions of users. By the time that happens, Steem will be worth way more than it is now - but it will split up into many more pieces.

The time to achieve great dreams on Steem is NOW! Becoming a top 1,000 user doesn’t seem too crazy here, but it might be out of reach in another few years.

How Hard Is It To Get There?

A quick glance at steemwhales.com shows the following user at #1,000:

It takes a little bit more than 6,000 SP to be in the top 1k right now.

I’ve been sitting at 1.5k SP for the last month or two due to power downs. I’ve been converting that money into USD to pay off bills and debts.

It would be amazing to get into the top 1,000 users by SP within 2017. I’d really feel like an important member of the community at that point.

From my current position, I’d need to add an average of 23 Steem Power per day. 23 Steem per day is ambitious but doable if I were to 100% power up all of my posts…

Downsides of the 1k Quest

…but the problem is simple. I’m about $20k in debt from credit cards and a loan. It would probably be irresponsible to invest so heavily in Steem, even though I love this place, while I’ve got debts accruing interest every month.

@nepd pointed this out to me in his comment from the other post:

Paying interest on debt is the opposite of the rich person’s financial style. The financially intelligent move is to collect interest via smart investing. Paying interest, on the other hand, is how you toil away for a lifetime while making somebody else rich.

I might strike a balance - I’ll avoid powering down for the rest of the year*, but cash out my 50% of liquid steem rewards each week. It’s unlikely to get me into the top 1,000, but it’s better than nothing.

At least it’s fun to think about. Once my debts are paid, it’s TO THE MOON!

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*I’m in power down mode right now, ironically, because I want to buy an ergonomic keyboard… 8+ hours per day of typing/guitar/drumming = carpal tunnel vibes. But my hands are feeling better than a few days ago, so I might cancel the power down.

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