How Steemit Has Changed My Life: From living on $1/day and 3 hours of electricity to Having over $41,319

in #steem8 years ago (edited)

I'm probably a poster boy for Steemit's potential success in Africa and its viral growth overall.

(Lol. I'm an introvert and I'm still 'picture shy'...and hmmn..privacy)

Today marks exactly 4 weeks I joined Steemit and I thought it would be fitting to make a proper introduction. And/or a testimonial.

I'm probably the only person from my country here on Steemit.( N.B I'm making a post on that soon). 1 in a million ;)

Growing Up


Here is a sample pic of where I grew up as a kid. Funnily, I grew up in a middle-class family. At least, according to the living standards here.

The standard of living is generally low and housing facilities are substandard......

What was even much worse was the power supply. We would be very lucky to get 3 hours of electricity daily. And oftentimes, we would go for weeks without having any power supply.

This, in turn, had an adverse effect on the economy of the country.
The youths are unemployed and the crime rate is sickening.

Things are getting a bit better though......a good government is in place and the economy is giving signals of a better time to come. As the largest economy in Africa, things can only get better.

My Love For Technology


My fascination with technology started when I gained admission to the university.
Here is my favorite spot at college. It was a perfect place to reflect and think about life.

I got admitted for a business degree on a scholarship and for a while, I was content going to boring classes. Until something happened.

My precious phone got stolen.

And after several weeks trying to raise funds for another one, I decided to turn to the internet for help.

I tried several ways of making money online. Affiliate marketing, Ads clicking, micro-jobs etc. I've tried them all. I learned HTML, CSS and I'm currently learning JS.

But after several months still without any luck, I decided to settle for freelance writing.

I was having a bit of success here and there. Not enough to survive, though. But still worth working on.
Then, the stars aligned.

The Steemit Dream


Exactly 4 weeks ago, I stumbled on @stellabelle's Medium post about Steemit taking over the social media….

At first, I was skeptical on the authenticity of the promise as I had been scammed many times….

I decided to give it a shot. After all, there's no harm in trying…..

And I'm glad I did.

After over 40 posts, it's been an amazing experience on Steemit. Though none has gotten over the thousand mark, mine has been the case of 'little drops of water make an ocean'.

I've made awesome partnerships with top writers like @donkeypong and @stellabelle and had chats with some really awesome people on Slack.

To: @crytoctopus; @anwenbaumeister @benjojo @gavvet and a host of others. You guys rock.

Steemit has helped launched my dreams. I've published my first book on Steemit and I recently launched SteemMag - Steemit's Weekend Digest. The theater of dreams as I call it

I've never been this fascinated over an online community before. And the rewards are just a nice welcome bonus…….

From living on less than $2/day to having enough at my disposal. I'm deeply grateful to all those who work day and night to make Steemit successful.

To all those whose efforts have been unappreciated, you're changing lives.

Now I can get a better smartphone, power bank, live a comfortable life and develop myself as a writer.

Steemit is a fantasy coming true.

Giving Back

Tomorrow, after a lot of planning, I will be making a detailed post outlining how I'm bringing Steemit to millions of people in my country. My own way of adding value to the community.

The journey has just begun guys….….despite the complaints and issues...we look forward to having even a better and balanced Steemit…..

It can only get better! Steem on…

And here's a toast to more success…..yours and mine...

Thanks y'all.

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I am so happy for you. I still remember the day you contacted me in slack and asked for my opinion about your writing. That day was the first change I felt about Steemit. I hadn't noticed you in Medium or the Choose Yourself FB page for some reason. And we had never talked. But your honesty and resilience plus your hard-working nature impressed me. I knew you were trustworthy especially after I requested your photos. It's been bad being cut off from this community while the hacker had control. That was the worst part of being hacked: disconnection from those I have grown very close to. I am so happy that you saw my post and were courageous to find this. You are really one in a million. I hope we can someday meet as that would be so fun. I'm glad I know you.

Stellabelle, you are a wonderful individual to help make things happen for this young writer. Males me smile :) Props.

She is truly awesome. A great friend to have.

These are some of the story that worth reading. Like they said never stop believing in yourself. There's a lot of opportunity . Just have faith and never ever loose hope...

God bless! Freedom is yours now! @infovore you are blessed! Spend this money wisely and live the rest of your days in happiness! You will be able to leverage this Steem to change SO many lives! :)

Thank you for posting your story. Hope you get ever more to snowball to the top!
I up-voted you too... QUESTION, could I have your opinion on this? should steemit let us steemers advertise using steem? Be sure to tell everyone you know to come vote here at: https://steemit.com/steemit/@kingtylervvs/if-steemit-ever-does-decide-to-advertise-there-is-only-1-way-it-could-work-in-my-opinion-debate

This is a democratic community decision.


Be wise in every decision you are making. Remember we are the master of our own destiny. If you feel that the odds are into you, never loose hope. Just think tomorrow is another day. Another day of challenge and another way of making your life better again... Thanks for sharing this.

I just joined steemit yesterday and am more than a little confused with it all. Hoping like you, i can change my life.

How do I get to be friends with stellabelle?

Keep the good work up

Will love to call you for the wonderful ideas.

Glad you and everyone got your accounts back! :)

I'm super glad too.

Wish you all the best!

Thanks 'Mother' africa ;) And you too.

I would love to get a few african bloggers together from all over to see what we can come up with! Maybe we should meet on slack? :)

Dude, this is to Guards ah? This will earn dollars ????

Pics or it didnt happen. Some say that YOU are infovore.

Great inspiration. Great post. Thanks for your post.

She is truly awesome. A great friend to have.

Thanks @jasonpangjs. I'm ecstatic people can relate to my story.

Glad to have you back Stella :-)

x

CG

... Cool post …RED FLAG: plagiarized this post: https://steemit.com/money/@redexi/how-i-survived-the-downtime-and-why-you-should-care
Please downvote!

Dude, this is to Guards ah? This will earn dollars ????

That was posted AFTER this post?

how do one contact someone on slack to chat??? or is it only possibly on the replies?? im new here! sorry for asking :)

awesome! Keep it up! a great person!

Are you piggybacking this G?

wonderwoman :)

wow. perfect!

Hey Stellabelle, we also follow each other on Medium. I have some important questions to ask @ned and @dan and I'm wondering if you could help me reach them. I believe answering these questions would be important for understanding why Steemit is taking off and how it can sustain growth in the future. Thanks! https://steemit.com/socialnetwork/@limitless/important-questions-about-the-network-effect-of-steemit

Well, they are very busy people. I have trouble getting a hold of them now. My best advice is to be patient and figure out how you can best be of value to them.

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 8 years ago  Reveal Comment

You are a wonderful person, sensitive, intelligent, hard-working, and putting others ahead of your own needs. I am privileged to call you a friend. There is no one who deserves this more than you.

Wow, Tom. You know this means so much to me. This wasn't possible without your help. I remember the times I ran to you for help. About my posts not getting much love. You took your time to partner with me and gave me so many tips. You, truly, fit this description : putting others ahead of your own needs

this...brought me to tears.

Wow. Coming from you! Thats the nicest compliment I've heard. I'm so glad you can relate. You rock man.

I'm fighting it a little too (the tears). This is my second night looking at Steemit, this is amazing.

:) Its heartening to see my story having an effect on others. You guys truly rock.

It's very exciting seeing a compatriot achieve huge success on this platform. Owning to the situation of the country.. Am happy for you bro.
I also stumble upon a post of @stellabelle on medium in the very beginning of this year which introduced me to steemit, though i immediately registered, I have found working on the platform very difficult as I currently lack a real home and working in the production dept of a popular eatery "De Tastee Fried Chicken" is very stressful and depressing, I decide to call it "Hell". I really lack the time of my own. My story is a long and twisted one, I was able to concisely brief it in an 'aid me campaign post' I wrote over a month ago https://steemit.com/freedom/@paulo380/a-cry-for-freedom Though I received many encouraging words and advice and despite promoting it on different crypto group, I was able to raise $12 only, many pointed out inserting my ether and bitcoin wallet addresses while i choosed to promote it right on steemit, this was a mistake I made from directly copying the format of the Medium copy https://medium.com/@oluwanisolapaul/a-cry-for-freedom-af578ef79dea plus the current problems facing for the crypto space is not encouraging.
Surviving in this country has been very unpleasant for me and I know you could understand the struggle.
I crave deeply to break-free from this stagnancy and pursue my Ultimate Dream "blogging" as i found something unusual during the course of a short period I blogged.
If ever you could find this message.. I plead from a desperate and genuine heart to assist me and be the hand that will pull me out from the sea of this uncertain future.
I will try as much as possible to provide any proof or document you request for.

You will be helping a life in a way you can't imagine Sir.

Thank you for the upvote.. Never thought you could ever read my message.

So I stumbled upon this post mistakenly and for some reason it align with me, recall when I did all the above you mentioned, clixsense, mcent and many others even a typing work online where I could get 1$ for typing a thousand words, was trying my best to earn online and I was so determined on looking for a paying webpage that I could earn a substantial amount from, after I was introduced by a friend of mine @destinysaid way back from secondary school, just like you, I thought it was too good to be true, like seriously which platform pays you like what he described.

All thanks to God, am able to afford some of the things I long for now and help friends and family as well, till now am still grateful to the steemit community as a whole and also to my friend for showing me this amazing community.

awesome story. Keep writing!

Thanks so much @blakemiles84 . Your posts are inspiring too.

Shut up and take my upvote!!

I like what you did there so I made this for you.

@nephilim - you just Steem copyrighted that image by posting it haha

Make a normal post for that and I'll definitely upvote it! Maybe add a Steem logo in the up arrow ?

@blakemiles84 - Thanks

steemit.com/upvote/@nephilim/shut-up-and-take-my-upvote

Hahaha. Thanks for the effort. :|

hahaha. You remind me of tuck-fheman. where's that guy?

Even though you're the reason I had to eat vegetables as a child, I upvoted.

Stay safe, keep your mouth shut about this money.

Not everyone is your friend.

Christopher.

I will take that to heart. Thanks for the candid advice. I'm interested in your story.

dreams come true

They do. They really do.

You brought sunshine to my day. Glad for you my friend. You deserve the best.

Wow. This means a lot to me. Thanks mate. And you too. We all deserve to be happy.

I love stories like this. It really brings back the value of how much we can do for each other as community. It really motivates me to immerse myself more in my own local community. Thanks for sharing :)

Thanks @annie-kho. I'm glad you learned something from my post. Truly my improvements so far as been due to working with others. And you will find lots of awesome people here on Steemit.

Wow, brought me to tears. ...!

You rock bro. I think you are a great example for many people out there that have lost hope in our society. Even thou time are rough you have found a way to overcome it all because you never gave up and must have some lucky guidance from a higher source. I can tell however that you are the type of person that wants to share your success with others because you understand and that is the best type of person. Good luck with all that you do.

Thanks for taking the time to write this mate.

Beautiful infovore. The more I learn about you, the more I like you! ;))

Wow.....Ben.....where are have you been? I've missed you...Get on slack, man......I like you too.

Congrats man! you deserve it!
To all those who are still suffering in life, I want to say that:

  1. "If it was night this long, can dawn be far away?"
  2. "When you are down, the only way forward, is up"
  3. Even an arrow has to be pulled back all the way before being launced free!

I hope everyone gets to fulfil their dreams here at Steemit! :)

I hope so too. We, early adopters, really deserve awesome stuffs.

Yeah! We do, don't we! I just hope I do well too. If I am able to make 10 good friends here and some dollars to keep me going, I will consider myself the luckiest man alive. :)

I'm so happy for you! I'm going to check out the rest of your blog! You are inspiring! I'm also in a similar range as you are and I've never been so thankful hehe :)

Thanks @kaylinart. I joined steemit the same time period you joined. And I've always been a fan of your words. Plus @stellabelle is your friend also.

Your success is well deserved @infovore. I was truly humbled when you asked for my advice on slack.

Your hardwork and perseverance is paying off. Here's to many more successful posts for you!

See who is here? Thanks @nanzo-scoop.... Glad to have you here......Thanks for the compliment....It's been quite a while...

Indeed, I don't have the time go into slack much. Good to see you top trending. Keep it up!

lol high rolling @infovore

How apt! This sounds like a fairy tale. But its REAL. Thanks. You're kind.

Its definitely out of this world - keep the posts coming and soon we'll be dancing to Drake @infovore #goodluck and thanks for the story

Goodluck to you too. Watching out for you.

Amazing story!! This is wonderful, I can't wait to hear about more stories like this :)

More stories like yours. I cant wait also ;)

I was getting frustrated too early before even contributing significantly here on Steemit. Your story just calmed me down. Will try a little harder now. Thanks for sharing the story and presenting it so interestingly. Will have to learn from your writing style.

I can relate. Its frustrating when you put a lot of efforts and you get next to nothing. I've been there before. And I can tell you, its gonna get better. Just keep calm and churn out great posts.

Ooh... And connect!

Sure, thanks for your reply and motivation

Inspiring!

What an inspiration to all of us! This i the first post that I can comment in since I came back and ironically, I don't have words!

Best of luck to you Mahmood! Wish you prosper more man!

Thanks so much. Welcome back. I always enjoyed your posts. Looking out for more. Welcome back!

Same here! This one was one of the best I've ever read on steemit :) Keep up the good work!

@infovore Absolutely beautiful story !!! I just spoke to my Nigerian friend the other day about steemit . He created a platform called africanviews.org and he was not convinced to get started here . Its a shame because he is very passionate about helping his homeland and his contribution would be so valuable . What do you suggest I should tell him .

Thanks @mammasitta. Wow. Do tell my countryman to keep calm, evaluate his options and continue striving. A number of people have really carved a niche for themselves in the NGO sector.
It was difficult at first, like every awesome stuff...But the dividends would be worth it. It would be awesome to have a chat with him though.

I am new to steem and i was going through the articles and stumbled upon your story. It made me remember my difficult childhood . I also come from a middle class family and situations here in my country is also same as yours. I am from Nepal and we also have hardly 3 4 hours of electricity per day and lack of which have hindered the development of my country since decades. I am already 34 and due to lack of good financial background I had to drop out from college and start working to support my family. But some day I hope to earn enough money to be able to go to college and complete my education. Well I have not much to say now. I will be looking forward to read more of your articles.

Hi! I`m from Germany but I got to knew a few Nepalese guys working at a restaurant and they are all very nice! So all the best to Nepal!

Posts like this are the reason I love crypto currency so much. It has the potential to change everyone's lives for the better! I'm so happy to hear our success story and good luck in life!

Thanks so much. If and when Steemit lives up to its potential, a lot of lives will be changed.

Indeed, infovore. We will all pay it forward. :)

I agree. Nice to see you drop by. @jlwkolb. You're a great writer.

Thank you - can't wait to read more of your posts. What a life you have lead!

This is nothing short of amazing. Congrats to you. I hope your success continues.

Hi @infovore, nice article, I have just wrote a funny article about this, a minute ago: https://steemit.com/steemit/@gabi-dumitriu/how-steem-changed-my-life-wait-what

Hi, @infovore I am glad about your success story, keep up the good work man, you will be able to help more people in your place.

BTW, is it still possible to join the Steem Slack? I have some possibly good ideas for the site, maybe its good if we can all talk there? -east

I also can't find slack :( Did you find it?

Congrats man! You earned it! Now go spread Steemit to everyone else in your nice little chunk of earth! It's only fair!

Thanks for the compliment.:|

Good for you! Hoping you continued success. I feel anyone that is here now, even those that just joined, will be surprised in a year on how well they are doing.

I agree. Its a theater of dreams. And dreams do come true.

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good lad, congradulations

This looks great, I'm glad to see it, cheers

Amazing story. This is what Steemit should be known for. Helping others voices to be heard and given some compensation when credit is due. You got my upvote!

Thanks. I'm glad you can relate. It was hard at first. But it worth it at the end. I guess.

great inspiration ...

I love to see how blockchain technology is penetrating to these remote areas to bring opportunities to those who need it. A level playing field for anyone with access to the internet. This is a feel good post for me

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Incredible! The power of his platform to change someone's life is amazing!

Truly incredible. I sometimes blink my eyes to be sure this is really happening.

It's truly amazing how crypto currency has changed the world.

My friend, congratulations! If anybody here deserves the success it is you. Keep up the great work friend! :0)

Congratulations, is a great post!

Do you like it?:
My God STEEM

Yes, your picture make me laught

A person with around $50k can wield some pretty signficant influence in sub-Saharan Africa. At least in my experience in Congo. I don't think people realise most people earn $50-300 a month! This is like giving a Westerner $300k!

Ooh. Well..thats in Congo. There's really a huge economic growth happening where I stay.....People do earn $150k and above yearly. So its not so poor. Things have just been down for a while.

Nice man, happy someone who can really use the money is getting rewarded!

It is people like you that are creating a great community for everyone on steemit. Thank you!

Thanks......we all make this happen.

Steemits' impact around the world is being felt. Get ready for big changes.

You're very correct. It's changing lives and so much more.

I am so happy to hear stories like this and how Steemit is changing people's lives. You're an inspiration to the community and minnows to come. Namaste~!

Thanks so much. I'm glad you like my story. We can only get better. Together.

Truly amazing.. I'm glad you got in touch with @stellabelle to begin with. You couldn't find a more suitable person than that. She is after all, the dolphin of steemit! :)

Best of luck to you, and I wish you nothing but great success further on too!

Kind Regards,
hitmeasap

Thanks @hitmeasap ...Its so heartening you enjoyed my journey so far.
You're right. Funnily, I joined Steemit a few days after her. So it was nice witnessing the 'making of a dolphin' IRL

And soon, you'll be as successful as she is! :)

Thanks man. I really appreciate the good wishes

fantastis post, up to $17,641 .. cool men

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