![Steem shuterstock.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmdSnbXG9Q57huB3Cv5tkE3ZZoyu83J9xqjbhw6BKq2p2z)
# Hey there Steem community!

## It’s almost six months since I joined and the journey has inspired a creative surge in my life. It’s a positive feedback loop where my inspiration to write has been encouraged by Steemit and the more I write, the more encouragement I receive from people within the close fraternity of true Steem warriors.

I live in South Africa where the economy is like that of any third world country, namely somewhat suppressed and struggling. Annual growth is hovering just above recession, the international investment level is just above junk status, and the local currency is around R14/$1. As a result I am unable to invest much fiat in Steem directly, due to living on the breadline with minimal savings at the moment. 

Nevertheless, I love writing and Steemit is a perfect place for me to express my creative and knowledge-based side, both giving and receiving. I was writing a blog anyway of a few posts a week when I joined Steemit in October 2018 but the potential to earn Steem which equates to valuable crypto and even potential fiat currency, has motivated me to blog almost daily now. I have come into my own as a writer and for the first time in my life am getting paid to write, thanks to Steemit.

At this point in the journey my SP is around 460 and approaching that first milestone of Minnow status, and that is based purely on my writing and no cash investment in Steem. The power of the pen to produce a profitable payout has positively piqued my passion in life. Considering that we are now in the depths of the crypto bear market, I have no intention of powering down at all, to be sure, to be sure (as the Irish like to say). I intend to grow my investment in Steem Power over the next year or two while the crypto market grows back up to its next ATH during the coming bull run.

Ideally in future when Steem is back up at its previous value of a few dollars, I hope to earn the actual proper amount that I should be receiving as a writer for each article, around $75-$100 per post or more. And I’m willing to put in the daily work over the next couple of years to achieve this level, all the while powering up and growing my SP as a long term investment in the best crypto after Bitcoin itself. 

If one can live a life doing what we love, and get paid to do that, then we really have found our niche, and Steemit is facilitating that for me as a writer, social networker and seeker of knowledge and creative self-expression. Gone are the days when one can easily publish a book or any written work without great cost and expect a profitable return. You really need to be an expert in your field and produce text books for academia or be a one in a million novelist to get that kind of publishing deal. So Steemit has bridged the gap for writers of worthwhile content like us, and brought an outlet for creative expression that pays.

I haven’t made it this far alone, of course. I wouldn’t even be this far without the help of the Steemit community here – the stalwart Steem soldiers who are also invested for the long run – you know who you are. So this is a shout out to them too. As a newcomer with little cash to buy my way up the ladder, I would still be swimming in a teaspoon if it weren’t for the bigger fish willing to give me a helping hand up to the bigger pools of power and potential profit, like @paulag, etc. 

So let’s push this Steemboat forward as a community and bring more Redfish to Minnow level in our wake, until they too can begin to contemplate Dolphin status and the legendary Whale category beyond. The positive feedback loop available here is the perfect way to lift all boats with the collective rising tide of Steem. 

# #tenkminnows here we come!