This afternoon, I had some time to kill before work. I decided to watch a documentary on one of my favorite subjects... Craft Beer!

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Crafting A Nation is a pretty well made film about the craft beer movement, which looks at a lot of small breweries across the country. A lot of these brewers are taking a leap of faith by starting their own businesses. Despite the remarkable growth of the industry, it's still tough running a business.. even more so *starting a business*.

One brewer, from Dogfish said something that really hit home for me. He said:

>I often tell aspiring brewers, and entrepreneurs in general, you better be more passionate about something other than money, because invariably as a start-up business, regardless of the industry, you're going to find a point in your existence, where you're out of money. And if that was the only thing driving you, you're gonna give up.

Obviously, it brought to mind the current state of Steem/it, and many of the conversations that I have participated in over recent weeks and months.

Steem has been called a start-up by many. The Steemit site has the "beta" tag. We're often reminded that these are the "early days" and that we are all "early adopters." But, for some reason, it doesn't really feel that way for a lot of us...

It seems more like the end of the line.

Some of the largest stake holders have been selling off their positions, which has caused a sharp decline in price well beyond the implicit gradual decline implied by the inflation rate. It's commonly referred to as "dumping" because of the large quantities being sold, relative to the amount of liquid STEEM in circulation and the volume being traded on exchanges.

There is little communication or transparency regarding the plans and efforts of the leadership of the platform. For a lot of us, it seems like we're being taken for granted. Some of us have invested a lot of money or time into the platform, only to see its value dwindle away to next to nothing as the founders signal their lack of confidence in the long term viability of the project... or perhaps merely their desire for immediate gains is more powerful than the need to slowly nurture the project from infancy to maturity.

Whatever the *reasons* for their actions, it is disheartening, as a person who has invested a lot of time and energy into the platform. And I can only imagine how it would feel to be an actual investor who sunk many thousands of dollars into the platform, only to watch the founders and leadership cash out those very same dollars, driving down the price and squandering the equity they were entrusted with.

Many entrepreneurs start businesses and don't even take home a pay check for months or years... They pour their hearts and souls into nurturing their visions. That is the opposite of what we have seen to this point. We have witnessed the founders extract as much value as possible with little regard to the success of the platform.

I don't expect a response to this... But I hope that this message might resonate with those who still have the power to right the ship. A lot of us are counting on you, and we're quite disappointed.