DEAR MINNOW,

I realized something. So many people want to get to the top, become leaders and all that, but they forget one key step which is essential and this is first becoming a follower.
I realize that so many whales we see today are simply enjoying the reward for their hardwork, loyalty and consistency. There was a time when then price of steem was dangerously below a dollar, yet, these whales stayed and built the vision from ground up.
Statement of the problem

Skipping a step.

So many people want to skip the first step, want to trend but they often forget it is one step at a time. Always being concerned about your inability to trend as a minnow in my opinion is a misplaced priority, as solely focusing on a trending page shows there might be issues with dedication to the vision.
What many people fail to understand is that steemit not only promotes creativity, but brain power, loyalty and patience.
The main mission should not be to trend immediately, should not be to pull in the big bucks, it should be to develop the vision.

Priorities

Another major problem with minnows is some do not understand the value of priorities. We often perceive steemit in this order
Register-->Make cash-->Trend-->Build a following-->Make more cash-->Increase in reputation score
When in actuality it should be:
Register-->Understand the concept-->Build a following-->Increase in reputation score-->Support the community-->Make cash-->Trend
So the question is why are the minnows in a hurry to achieve in a day what took the whales over a year to achieve?

The thing most minnows fail to understand is, whales were once minnows too, they built each other up

Right now minnows do not want to build each other up, the don't want to follow each other because they believe the whales will make them whales instantly, so they resteem whales and overlook their fellow minnows. They upvote and comment in whale's posts and skip those of their fellow minnows.
Steemit is designed that votes, no matter the reputation score, are counted and those votes alone will get you to the top. Most whales won't resteem a minnow because they expect you to figure it out and earn your way to the top. But, on the other hand, a minnow will most like resteem a fellow minnow who resteems him and before you know it, you get more votes, higher chance of an increased reputation score, more following which means more recognition and cash after some time.

What is steemit to you

Is it a money making venture? a get rich scheme venture? a way out of all your problems? Or a vision to be shared with others?
For a minnow to succeed, you have to answer this question truly.

Everyone, you need to understand that Steem has a long way to go. It will get there but we have to have patience and perseverance.

Newbies and minnows and even bigger investors on steem blockchain need to come to this awareness to accept the fact that the state of the current value of steem and SBD is not the destination. Steem as I see, is a moving reinvention with promise for the future.

When i watch young minds who came on the steemit platform with so much enthusiasm and commitment withdraw their creative contents and quit posting on their blog which is their tool of contributing to the platform because of the current price of steem/SBD I think we're missing some seriously obvious low hanging fruit:

It shocked me when I asked a few folks in our WhatsApp community why I do not feel their blog vibes no more. The shocking reply was, "my blog don't make better earnings so I await the rise in price of steem" ... Really?

Even life isn't rosey at all time. You face up times and down times. That's what the crypto market also faces. There are times when most coins are mooning, and times when it dip. But a passionate blogger will stick to his or her art.

what does Steem have to do with giving?

I think it has many things. You do not necessarily have to give Steem or SBD, you can, for example, give a good piece of advice, leave a vote or leave a very good comment. Someone came yesterday and left a comment with a very strong link inside. I found that to be a great gift. I only can say thank you.

There are a lot of people here who give a lot of time to help minnesows, from the various trainings they hold, delegations that they give and up to the various curation services that are looking for to vote very good posts.

Are you giving up already?

Cheer up! Keep on the flame!
The price will get better.

Sincerely

@the-fundraiser.