I've made some amazing accomplishments in my 5 short months here on steemit.  I hope that this post helps those of you who are new to the platform, struggling to find success or looking at tweaking what you do to find even more success.

Accomplishments in the first 150 days

• I reached Dolphin status in 112 days organically
• My account is in the top 0.2% on the blockchain
• Recently ranked #132 out of 815,000 for number of comments made on the blockchain for 2018
• I am quickly approaching 1000 followers
• My reputation is 64.71
• I created the Stewards of Terra Mater
• I spear headed The Virtue Circle, a movement to improve ethics on social media
• I consistently delegate anywhere from 82 - 99% of my steem to other users
• My account is worth over $25,000CDN / $19,000USD - majority was gifts from others.
• My account continues to grow at about 2% a week
• When I first started I was one of the top bloggers for new accounts
• I've logged at least 1100 hours on this platform
• I've written 264 posts, 2646 comments and an estimated 1 million+ characters to date 
• I've helped countless people through my work
• My wife and I have lived off of Steem for months
• The number of users has more than doubled since I signed up on October 5th, 2017.
• Price of steem has tripled.

I did not do this alone.  I thank everyone who has ever upvoted my content as my success is a result of your gifts to me.  

How can you do the same?

Steemit is not like any other social media site.  Because cryptocurrency is involved we now have a stake in what happens.  This influences behaviour significantly.  So unlike some of the other social media sites, there is a strategy required to succeed here.  

Success requires that you get the attention of those who have influence, but not drive them insane either.  The best protocol for getting noticed is to engage in their blogs, write meaningful comments, participate and interact with them and all the others that are there as well.  You will get noticed and they will start to follow you.  If the individual is an author, like myself, your comments will be rewarded.  I do this because I don't have the time to visit 100 blogs to spread my upvotes around.  So I use it to upvote those who interact with me.  You can make money this way as well, not just on your own blog, but on the comments you share with other people.  I know of some people that make the majority of their money commenting rather than writing a blog.  

For others, they are curators and that is all they do.  They go around looking for great content to support and share.  By commenting on their posts, you will get their attention and they will visit your blog.  If they like what they see, they will upvote and share your work.  That brings awareness to your work and your followers will come.

Providing great content is critical for maintaining momentum.  It does not matter if it is written word, pictures, music or other forms of art, keeping it consistently high quality is what this platform is looking for.  The higher quality, the better as it add value to the currency that is being created here.

In the end, as always, it comes down to your relationship with people.  Begging, plagiarism, spam, covert violence and other abusive behaviours just does not fly around here.  There are bots and individuals who look for that sort of stuff and work hard to clean it up through confrontation and even flagging.  You do not want to be on the receiving end of that!

Having the right tools to manage your account is important.  I wrote a post a while ago with a list of tools that have been developed that you can use to help you through this experience.  Knowing how to use the tools will help you.  Because this platform is open source, there are many developers who are writing applications to interface with the blockchain.  Some run reports and provide all kinds of interesting information to help your journey.  @abh12345 and @arcange are two individuals that you will want to check out in this regard.  

Steemit is works by gifting to others.  This is a platform where the paradigm shift has changed and the old boys club rules don't work here.  We prosper by giving and sharing.  There are lots of greedy people here, just like in the real world.  All they want is money.  That paradigm will not work here, especially when millions of people show up.  We are learning how to interact with one another in the new paradigm here on steemit.  Embrace it and you will increase your success.  

For those who need more help

The learning curve is steep.  So I am working on putting a class together in St. Albert or Edmonton in a few weeks.  I'm working on making arrangements for the facility right now.  My plan is to do a hands on training session in the morning where everyone brings their laptops and we go through the system and the tools.  The afternoon will be spent networking and getting to know one another.  I've been teaching computers to people for 35 years, so I will do my best to help users increase their proficiency with the platform so that they can find success.  Although, I cannot guarantee success as it also depends on your content and your willingness to interact and participate with the community.  

Steemit is one of the only cryptocurrencies that does not require fiat currency to get involved.  The currency is created by our own creative capacity and that has the greatest value in my opinion.  The information, friendships and community being built here is more valuable than the currency.  If we use the currency to bring forth independence and freedom, we can change the world.  We will change the world.  Of that, I have no doubt.  

If you want more information on how to get started, this post has more links, ideas and suggestions that you can read through.  I hope this helps people get established and find success.  

 Click here for more information on how to join The Virtue Circle
Click here to join us on Discord.