Believing In Yourself Pays, But Believing In Others Sets You Up For Life -- [Life Story]
![IMG_1014 copy.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTiYRzMLdAcMdiTwXhWsGeL8qduCpxawqgya5uq5sVJ6r/IMG_1014%20copy.jpg)
The Setup
"I Like to Gamble!"
I came across this artist a few years ago while reading a finance news story or was it an art article, I can't remember which exactly. Two quite different subjects are usually not intermixed and should not be easily confused, but in this case you will see why. What I had read was the story of an artist who took a chance and was rewarded thousands of times over. I was recently reminded of this story when I took the picture of this artwork and only later realized the artist was David Choe.
David Choe is a Los Angeles born artist of Korean descent. He didn't always know he was going to be an artist, but by the time he was 21 he was well on his way to self-expressing artistic freedom. By the time the year 2003 rolled around, David had been to jail, had done some extensive hitch hike traveling, and lived life to the fullest all the while continuing to pursue his artwork. He initially started out as a street graffiti muralist but was branching out into other art forms such as comic book making and painting. David's path was marked with forks, dead ends and even unmarked trails when forging his own way forward. He was living life on his terms and doing it his way.
Sometime around 2005, Choe was commissioned by Sean Parker to do some artwork for the offices of Parker's new venture. Both were at low points. Choe still struggled financially as an artist and Parker's company, Napster, was being sued for Billions and Trillions of Dollars. Choe knew that he could earn a huge paycheck but Parker's passion for his dream inspired him so much, that Choe was willing to forego his paycheck and instead receive shares of stock in Parker's new company. Choe states that, "I took a gamble," but I believe he sells himself short in his modesty. He did not like what Parker's company was doing or represented, but rather knew that Parker strongly believed in his new endeavor, and so with that he became a stakeholder in Parker's vision. Instead of receiving $60,000 Dollars for his art work, he received shares.
"I Could Actually Change the World"
In 2012, Choe's life became the center of attention both his art as well as his financial prowess. His gamble was about to pay off and the media wanted to know who he was. Facebook was getting its IPO ready, and based on the numbers, Choe would be receiving a windfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars for those shares he had received back in 2005. Ultimately, after Facebook went public and David Choe made some small financial moves, he retained somewhere around $200 Million Dollars of Facebook shares. Shortly after he was quoted saying, "this is like a godlike amount of money, where I could actually change the world and do things to help humanity and do good things."
Steemit is the perfect platform to practice David Choe's ideal of believing in ourserlves and in believing in each other. No other medium has the ability to both support the content creator/provider and the user/consumer like STEEMIT.COM. Much like Choe, STEEMIT.COM is also forging its own way, trail blazing new paths where in supporting others, we better ourselves. STEEMIT.COM could actually change the World!
![IMG_1014.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmR4ihFWiTzmhJjGFteaV8Qye6zGMRNKU7xCYuuzRcszE3/IMG_1014.jpg)
The complete mural in Downtown LA Arts District
Full Steem Ahead!
06/24/2017
@streetstyle
![](https://steemitimages.com/100x80/http://steemitboard.com/@streetstyle/level.png)
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Loved this read, This platform is all about creating a tightnit community, and like you say, believing in others will set you up for life!
Thanks for the like on my latest post! I hope you enjoy the future posts, and I look forward to yours!
UPVOTED AND RESTEEMED
Yes! People who are all about the money and not about the networking will not make it here.
Hi bambam, just wanted to give a shout out where it's due. I love the positive feedback you're showing. Steemit is unlike any other platform I have ever seen before. Upvoted your comment and will follow you to see more of you in the future! Thanks for being an awesome human!
Thanks @bambam808 Much appreciated.
Hey streetstyle, I'm sorry I found this a day too late but regardless I just wanted to tell you how inspirational it was to me! I just got started on here and at first, all of the how to blogs were suggesting I go around and try to get myself some followers... I didn't know how to do any of that as I am pretty new to this type of thing so I just began reading. Reading for hours. I didn't know what I was doing at all- didn't know what my votes were for, didn't know how to navigate... I started to stress out. I had joined this space as an outlet to set my ideas free, like a balloon, for someone to see and maybe feel a bit of happiness inside from what I was sharing but I started thinking (based on what I was reading) that I was failing because no one was even seeing my posts! I stayed on here for almost 2 days straight... reading and reading and what I realized was that the content on here is straight up incredible. I found myself thoroughly enjoying reading other people's posts, thoughts, ideas, artwork! Then everything hit me! It's a beautiful community of sharing and support and I love that so much about this place! This post is just another example of that (sorry for my long winded comment) but I just wanted you to know I value this kind of outlook, it's refreshing to see all the positivity that exists in here. Thanks again, looking forward to hearing more from you! All the best,
Heart-to-Heart <3
Thank you @heart-to-heart Great name by the way. And yes, this can be a great place with many generous people. I take it you haven't heard how the community came together for @darthnava and helped him pay for emergency surgery. Also another great here is @papa-pepper , also inspiring and when need be, physically putting himself and his cash out there where there is need.
Yes @heart-to-heart you can this place is beautiful and mostly positive. You will do well here, just give it time, you will see.
full steem ahead!
Me? I was just lucky I guess, because God, @papa-pepper and the Steemit community heard me and my family's cries for help.
I don't think it was luck @darthnava I think it was the community appreciating you for being you, that is not luck, although it might feel like it.
I hope things are better for you and continue to be better. Take care!
full steem ahead!
ps. and yes @papa-pepper and his Peppers are Amazing!!!
I deeply appreciate your support. Thank you, buddy!
Hey @streetstyle thanks so much for the lovely reply :) My name is inspired from my personal blog, I like to have heart-to-heart discussions about various real- life topics. I hope to bring that here in the future ;) I have not heard of either of those you mentioned, but I will definitely look into them, sounds like a truly heart-inspiring story. Thanks for the welcome, hope to see you around! :)
@heart-to-heart One more thing, and that is that you should consider doing an #introduceyourself post. This helps verify your account, and usually leads to more community support. Since you already have a blog, that might be another way you could verify your steemit account. Any questions, let me know.
@streetstyle I did do an intro post when I first logged on, I'll post it in so you can check it out if you'd like :) I guess I didn't tag #introduceyourself as someone told me not too... but regardless, this is me! Thanks for the tip!
https://steemit.com/story/@heart-to-heart/hiya-i-m-cece-i-like-to-create-food-babies-let-my-weird-and-wild-imagination-express-itself-through-story-telling-and-send-free
I did see it and you can use that tag. Since you haven't used it though, I guess you can still do one, but the ones that hold a sign like this usually fare better...
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@signsfromheaven/greetings-from-signsfromheaven
let me know if you do another one ok?
Awww... I get it... you want to make sure I'm not a bot :) I'll find some paper and keep you posted! Thanks again! I'm enjoying our new friendship!
hehehe, yes that's it. It isn't just I but the Steemit community in general I think that just like to see it @heart-to-heart You can also just link to your site and from your site back to steemit as another form of verification, but I personally don't think it as effective.
Completely agree! This is a beautiful message. Steemit is changing the world :)
Great post! Believing in others, doing and creating things that will help others, having other people in mind, pushing them, supporting and all alike activities focused on the wellbeing of others can never set you up for a failure :)
Thank you for sharing this :)
Super dope article . Im artist to ,hope my future will be bright. Cheers
Interesting story, it was a nice read. 😊 He had the courage to risk it all and he won.
Great post, @streetstyle. Deserves a resteem. :)
intresting post, very beautiful ! Thx for the Vote
awesome post!
new follower! upvoted & resteemed
Thank you @kintar0 It is very much appreciated.
full steem ahead!
Thankyou so much for upvoting my post :)
Hey can you please check all my other posts
and give me some upvotes hehe