Greed, need, bleed and seed

Sometimes I feel greedy and it isn't just when I eat. On Steem, I enjoy earning Steem and I hope that one day I am able to hold a lot of it. Is that greed? Is it greedy to want to earn and is it greedy to actually earn on what is considered skills? What is interesting is that while people talk about greed on Steem, the same people seem to have no problem watching professional athletes earn as much as the GDP of a small country for kicking or hitting some kind of ball around as after all, they deserve it.

I am no professional athlete however, I am not even that clever according to the psychological tests I did not so long ago but, I am also not stupid. On Steem I have taken the approach of, work my ass off toward where I want to be as at this point, it really is my only option and best chance to have some kind of excess that breaks the hand to mouth earning loop. My intelligence is outside of my control, my ability to work is with my control.

People have so many excuses as to why they can't do something and then say it is unfair that others can do something. Yes, it is unfair that I can't run 100 metres under 10 seconds and, it is unfair I am not 6'7" with a 36" vertical leap. Does this mean that because I can't dunk a basketball or bend a football like Beckham, I have to be relegated to working a nothing job? That is obviously just silly isn't it?

This is the thing with Steem though because as it expands, there will be more and more room for varied skill sets to earn without needing to be a writer, blogger or developer of any kind. Who knows what will eventually be possible but, there are many options coming. For me, I like to write and for the most part, I am not too bad at it considering. Should I feel greedy for earning more than others, should I be embarrassed or ashamed?

Even now as I smash out another 1000 words for a few dollars, there will be people posting a photo and a line of text for 20+ and they don't even buy votes. Should they be ashamed? Hell no. They have done the work and successfully played the Steem game, a complex and treacherous field of scam and betrayal - and some pretty damn nice, funny and talented people also. I ma not jealous of people's success but, I am critical of my own failures and even if I don't identify with them, I do evaluate them.

If I had the ability to buy more Steem I would buy more Steem but, I would continue to post because, that makes sense long term from both an investment and a community perspective based on what I plan to do long-term given the chance to do it. It isn't greed to post as I do, I enjoy writing, I enjoy what I do and, I enjoy getting rewarded for it also and the chance to do what I want to do in the future requires much more work behind it than buying in stake.

Buying into a community only gets you so far, digging into the community through interaction and support is necessary if one wants to play various roles within the community. When it comes to whales performing well in this respect, @theycallmedan is smashing it and if this place becomes something, he is likely to be even more relevant than he is now and, it won't just be because of his stake as he will have used his stake to build communities around him. He will be a Steem Patron. Some of the other highly staked who want relevancy long-term not just profits might want to consider similar. Of course, nothing wrong with profits as a bonus.

One day my plan is to use Steem to find more and more ways to support externally and pull external into the blockchain. While the chain isn't ready for it now, it will be in a few years and then, stake is going to matter to investors. Tell me, are you going to invest with someone who has no sin in the game? Fuck that, I am not. While people might think Steem holders silly, those holders are going to have draw power in the future as they are the representatives of possibility.

People like @acidyo who has worked hard for Steem and continues to do so at the highs and the lows. When this place does well he will do well too but, there will be hundreds of others who will benefit because of him directly, myself included. Not just because of his vote, but the way he has pulled people in and inspired them on Steem and connected networks together that might not have found each other otherwise.

Asher (@abh12345) is another one who is directly responsible for keeping people engaged as through his engagement league and various activities, people are still here, still earning and many of them have learned enough about the platform that they are buying-in with their hard-earned real-world fake money. People tend to forget that work has to generally be done to have fiat it seems, they look at a buy in and see it like they cheated. Nonsense - there are professionals here, you just may not be one of them.

I just mentioned "learned enough about the platform" and that is generally the case for those who buy in, they are investors into Steem, if not investors into anything else. I know one person who is lining up their first ever buy after being on the platform for ages. They have learned a lot and wanted to but haven't had the possibility until now. I am happy for them and hope it works out but, they also know the risks as, that is part of learning about the platform and they have learned.

My next buy is hopefully coming up soon also but, I have some taxes to clear first before I see what is left. What I do know is that I am tired of this constant chasing and running away that has been the process of my life for much too long. Sure, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed but, I can't be that fucking stupid that I never learn that the secret isn't in working hard, it is working hard at something with the potential to appreciate greatly and that generally means, accepting risk by facing and dealing with uncertainty. If you want certainty in investment, take all that you earn and put it into the bank, it will certainly depreciate in value.

So yeah, I don't feel greedy earning Steem on Steem as it is part of the point of being here and, while some might disagree with the way it all works, it is in a constant state of flux and what happens today might never happen again from tomorrow on. Wishing different isn't going to create different but what does is having the ability to speak one's mind without censorship, being able to use ones stake as chosen and participating in the development of an economy that is looking to be like no other economy the world has ever seen before.

I am not just talking about Steem, I am talking about the entire crypto industry, the blockchains and all the currencies that will come and go, succeed and fail over the coming years. People still haven't grasped it have they? Just like people complaining about Steem while there is only 20,000 people here, they think that the entire market cap of crypto is representative of crypto's value, it isn't.

The market cap is a snapshot of a timeline that will rise and fall but, there are only a handful of people in crypto at the moment, not the entire market. Once the projects start working, once the bank exchanges fire up their engines, legislation allows for institutional investment and every Tom, Dick and Agency wants their own little piece of Crypto real estate on a blockchain and a few coins to trade with, the market absolutely explodes.

A billion people can flood into crypto in a year or two given the right conditions.

You are going to wish you held.

 
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

100 dollars, 10 dollars, 1 dollar, 10 cents - I am happy to get what I can for my work as it all helps.
_{You can do and think what you want.}