What Happens When The Parade Is Over?

thebugiq (62)in #steemit • 6 years ago (edited)

What happens when your parade is over and you’re standing in the street with all the gold and silver confetti on the ground, and the brass band is disappearing around a corner at the end of mainstreet? You can hear their jubilant song fading into the distance.

What happens when you realize that the confetti is being reloaded into the same canons they came out of, and the band is rounding the far corner down the street and heading straight back at you as they welcome the next jubilant newcomer to steemit town, in a never ending welcome parade.

You suddenly realize the crowd isn’t looking at you anymore. They’re looking down the street at the newcomer, and the smart move is to move into the crowd and clap for the newcomer so you don’t get mowed down by the same parade that just welcomed you. It’s such a great feeling to be welcomed! And the genuine connections you make will sustain you.

My .002 sbd? Don’t build a house, pitch a tent. You are the free master of your own destiny here. Speak no evil of anyone, never burn a bridge you do not absolutely have to burn, be genuine, engaging and community oriented. Meet everybody, get in on as many discords as you can. Talk shows, radio shows, town halls you name it. Speaking of genuine, if you’re reading this and you’re a serial plagiarist, just leave town now, unless you’re ready for a conversion experience and ready to put your own actual self out there and build something great. Otherwise, piss off. Why so mean Bug?? Because I have three products at market without my consent, that I designed, by three different companies that I have signed NDAs with. I’m not fussy on douchebags.

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Next piece of advice? Get over yourself as fast as possible. Start building your niche or niches.

Next, if you want to be pegged in one, specific category, be the very best peg you can be.

Next. If you want to be a multi-niched blogger, then accept everything that comes along with that. People may be confused, because we naturally are trained to use specialists in our life. We don’t go to the convenience store to have knee surgery. So the methodology I suggest is to vary the length and breadth of topics and content. Some, long and in depth, some short and punchy and others in between. You need to reward those who love your work and spend time engaging with your longer works with some shorter things. Full sit down meals, a little diner with a touch of drive thru. Mix it up nicely. Take some risks and accept and ignore some advice. And then, do. not. worry. about. the. outcome. For no good reason there are channels on youtube that have 4 million views on one video and 4000 on another. Don't make yourself nuts worrying about that stuff.

What’s the moral of the story? Lemme splain.

Well, you see, now that’s where my advice gets a little trickier. You’ll hear a lot of platitudes here like, ‘Just do you,’ and a million others. Don’t get me wrong, platitudes wouldn’t be platitudes if they didn’t have any value. But they can feel a little Confuciusy, like, what is the sound of one hand clapping? My natural instinct as a Canadian who was a railroader, a general contractor, a security specialist and a karate guy is to pull your shirt over your head and go total plankshit on you. Advice with no teeth or methodology is a powerful boat with no rudder, compass or steering wheel. It has undirected potential to take you to a place of your choosing, but it is useless to you so long as you are unable to control your direction. Unless you’re me and it takes me to Themyscira.
But let’s not get sidetracked.

What most advice lacks is METHODOLOGY. HOW do you get from HERE to THERE. Ever notice that people in highly selective and successful fields have intense training to be successful, and then ongoing training to remain current?

One phase of my life was turning around floundering businesses to freshen them up and find new focus. I don’t want to dwell on that much other than to point out two things. Firstly, spending time engaging with yourself and your talents is the best investment you can make. Even more than being involved in this platform and having people love your work and love you. Love your own work, and love your own you. If you make zero sbds from steemit, yet you genuinely and sincerely invest in yourself, you win. No matter what, an enriched life is the answer because we’re all just passing through in this life. Wave, smile, love others and love yourself.

Does that sound like I’m a sad, little, pandering idealist to you? Go read my, A Season Of Faith’s Perfection blog, and then finish this. I am a realist and an ever-evolving optimist. Life gave it to me pretty hard but, so what? I’m still here, I’m relatively healthy with an internet connection, I play music for a living and I don’t live in a country where I have to run for my life, while the United Nations says, oh what a pity 800 thousand gallons of precious human blood was spilled in the latest ethnic cleansing. Oh yes, my my, we completely condemn that. Really? You condemn it? Anyways, on point, I’m here and not there. So I have something that not everyone has. Choices. And if you are here on this platform, with whatever internet connection you happen to have, You. Also. Have. Choices.

What will you do with that choice?

The second, and in my view, most important observation, after turning around numerous businesses and helping others start new ones is this: Beware The AskHole

An AskHole is a person who is too stupid to understand that they just received advice with the equivalent value of a one pound gold bar, yet insists on incessantly asking the same questions of as many people as possible. Like that one friend on FaceBook who asks a question and then says GO. In the mix of the answers is one response that goes a little something like this: I understand you are interested in international travel and some of the better destinations. I was a pilot for 44 years and have spent time in every corner of the globe and have visited every beach, glacier and blade of grass on the planet. Hit me up for more info. Right after his response is: Me and the fam went to Punta Cana with our Walmart gift card, Why would we ever leave the resort? Unlimited grilled krill buffet baby, yeaaaaaahhh. And you would be right if you figured that it’s the second comment from aunt Suzie’s single toothed, crack smoking cousin’s adopted nephew that got a big thumbs up. And then a million comments after that. Honestly, if you’re in an information chain like that, please have enough common sense to ask the pilot in the chain to elaborate and name his top five.

Do. Not. Be. An. AskHole.

Any friends who start off a conversation with me by saying, so I was watching this Tony Robbins seminar...I just stop them before I go PlankShit. Stop seeking the advice of experts whose only, single porpoise in life is to regale you with encouraging stories. Some benefish can come from that, but keep it minimal. You’re much better off spending your time mapping out your own skill sets and seeing what is worth sharpening.