What benefit do you expect your blog to be, if I even bother to click on it in the first place? What do you think the reader will the gain from your words and images? What value do you bring to the table? I have been a professional blogger for many years, and one blindingly obvious mistake I see from newbies is becoming so annoying to me that I've decided to pull the life support plug on my self by committing social media suicide by deleting my own Twatter and Facecrack accounts. YouToobe will be next to go. I never bothered with Instagame, or any of these new Snapshit smartphone Apps, as my goal is to be a guy with no phone.

Why would I axe down my own entrepreneurial efforts after decades of growth, leaving a bewildered following of family, friends and fans asking “when is the next video?!” Because I am creating space. Space to think. Space to write. Space to create. In an age where every single human being is enslaved to their own wireless devices for communication with their extended self, I have to come to the conclusion that the best way to stand out amongst the crowd, will be to leave the crowd entirely, and do my own thing. When I attended high school in America I was the new boy, from England. Students were eager to get to know me but they were all perplexed that during lunch hour I would not sit in loud busy canteen cafeteria with everyone else. I sat alone, outside, on the picnic bench. I prefer sitting outside, that's all. I was not afraid to be the loner. What actually happened was the cool kids began to join me, we organically created our own picnic bench crew, and within a few weeks half of the high school were no longer playing by the lunch room rules, even if it was pizza friday. We often follow convention because no one has stepped outside, yet. It only takes one, to begin a movement.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS from a dancing guy.

Notice that I have not deleted my Steemit account. The beauty of the blockchain is that I could not self-delete, even if I wanted to. The fact that I am bothering to write these words, and post them is a mighty great testament to my belief in where the future is heading. The future is bright, the future is Steemit. The future is crypto-currency, and you don't need me to tell you that. The future is not the CIA's Facecrack and it's negative skeptical energy draining community.

I have observed that if I mention Bitcoin to anyone consuming mainstream media news, they are immediately triggered and react the same way every time; like a parrot repeating the words of doubt and misinformation fed to them. “It might all crash, at any minute”, or “Bitcoin is not secure” and my absolute favourite; “Bitcoin is not backed by gold.” I struggle not to laugh in the face of these enslaved minds, governed by the govern-mind, the government. Do you still believe there is gold in a vault somewhere to back up your queens head paper or dollars? Where do you get your Bitcoin information, no, lemme guess; the television?! To bring an embarrassing conversation to a close I usually conclude with, “I know, how about this; in one year, let's talk again, and see how much more Bitcoin has gone up, or down in value, shall we?”

If you have not heard of Pareto's Peas, then I shall give a quick overview. The Pareto Principle is also known as the 80/20 Rule and states that for many events roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. What does this have to do with peas, or with my Steemit blog? Good questions, which I am glad you asked, and I am getting there. A dude called Pareto noticed that in his garden the plants producing most peas per pod were all coming from 20% of the plants. The 80% were barely worth the effort, and he could discontinue these without losing out. This same system seems to apply through out nature, and business. Sometimes the percentage is even more squiffed; like 90/10 or as we see in the wealth distribution of the world; 99/1. If you're wondering; we are the 99%. Just as the Occupy Movement states.

When we apply the 80/20 Rule to blogging, it is startlingly apparent that 80% (or more) of my income, is coming from Steemit. Even though I have spent an entire decade doing YouBoob, Facecrack and Twatter, I've seen so little % income return from these that they have cost me more money than they have ever made. Included here is a very honest screenshot of my “earnings” from all my YouChewed efforts.

I know am worth billions more than $3.31. There comes a time when we must re-evaluate and ask ourself “is this even worth it?”. That time is now. With most my content being demonetized, demonetized, demonetized we are in middle of an Adpocalypse. The ancient antique system of bowing down to advertisers and being their puppet, so they can sell to your audience is over. The punchline here is that 80% of my lifetime has been spent editing videos for the mighty YouDude, and this is time I will never get back. This is time that could have been spent dancing in the rain, playing with a puppy, reading a book, visiting my Dad, or connecting with my Mom, before these options slip away in the sands of time.

We have come full circle to my decision to go “STEEMIT ONLY” - no time wasting on other sites, not even it's “for promotion” of Steemit. There is some credit to being a Steemit Evangelist, and there is being dragged down by the sinking ship, be sure which way you're sailing. It's possible to evangelise without using the usual networking tools, and it will take a little more inventive, creative approach. This promotion thing is a trap many find themselves in. Ask anyone why they bother Facebonking and they'll most likely use these two excuses; “It's the only way I have to keep in touch with my friends, or else I wouldn't know what's going on!” or if they are socially networking for business so they'll say “I only use it for networking, for business!” These are the words of an addict, like someone who only likes the taste of a beer or glass of wine, every night, and every weekend.

The most obvious thing about the Facecrackers community is that they're a bunch of bitches, there to gossip, bitch, compare themselves and whine, probably with their wine. They are not nice people, and the comments department and discussions are a what give me 99% of my headaches. Is the 1% of benefits worth it? On day one I switched off the “Chat” feature as what “Chat” really means (for me) is; “Receive random conversations from people you don't really know who'll want to ask open-ended irrelevant time wasting questions, because their own life is boring as fuck, and they're hoping you'll entertain them, while they're at work.” Next, we learnt not to scroll down; “don't-look-down”!!! For fear of getting caught up in the cold harsh shit stirring comments. Then I reduced my attendance to Fridays ONLY. Facebonkers-Fridays, and reduced this down to only for one hour. One hour per week in the blue and white world of negativity is more than enough of a reminder that I dont want to be there, so Im gonna make an even greater statement and deactivate account. When they ask why, I'll make it clear the competition is here to take over.

What is on the yin-yang flipside, is the Steemunity, a lovingly warm and welcoming bunch with wide open arms and friendly support. People on Steemit are givers. People on Facebonk are takers. We cannot categorise everyone with such blanket stereotypes, but these observations have come from many people who've made the jump. Maybe it's because there are rewards related to Steemit, so the people there are more well behaved, or maybe it's the best of the bunch, the pioneers and trail-blazers. Only the one's smart enough to figure out crypto will have signed up, and persevered with posts. I've encouraged many to sign up, few have the persistence to post regularly, hence few reap the rewards. Great, that means more money in the Steem kitty for me, and for you.

When we remove a thing from our lives, it appears we've lost the thing, yet what we don't see is that we have gained space. Space for new friends, space to express ourself creatively, space to be rewarded in ways we could not have been before, because now our time is better spent. Time is Steem. The old fears of “missing out on what's going on” will fade away once we're willing to take the gamble that our true friends will always be there, in person. My best friends “in real life”, like @samstonehill, @kenistyles and @iamjamie are already here on Steemit, which only goes to prove law of attraction in action; that which is like unto itself is drawn. Birds of a feather, flock together. We have made many, many more new friends, who I've not met in person (yet), but I see from their Steemit accounts they're pretty cool people like; @firepower, @xaero1, @aggroed, @ausbitbank, @blueorgy, @clayop, @curie, @followbtcnews, @furion, @fyrst-witness, @good-karma, @gtg, @jerrybanfield, @klye, @pfunk, @pharesim, @someguy123, @teamsteem, @themarkymark, @timcliff, @dannyshine, @jockey, @jesta, @blocktrades, @krnel, @thecryptodrive and @tedcarr

The ability to cut off meaningless conversations is a skill, an ability I am still perfecting. Let us spare a final thought for those “friends” who didn't make it here, the ones who have fallen behind, and failed to keep up... were they really friends at all? Maybe they're just people you once knew, people you once associated with, people you out-grew. We are the average of the five people we spend most time with. This is the power of association.

My final words are intended to complete the loop where we began, at the beginning of this post; What benefit do you expect your blog to be, if I even bother to click on it in the first place? What do you think the reader will the gain from your words and images? What value do you bring to the table? I see more than 80% of the people on Steemit taking the approach of “I will upvote you, if you upvote me”. Where will this lead, if we all do this? How about, instead of sending each other pennies, we invest our time in writing, painting, editing and creating a post we are passionate about? What would happen if we stopped trying to make a quick buck, or a few pennies, and in the new space we have created we blog something with some intrinsic value to the reader? It is likely a post like this could take all day, maybe all week to produce, so yes, it will take much more time to be entertaining and bring value to the community, but it is our time which is rewarded. So if you're a newbie making pennies and wondering why, while complaining “it must be a scam”, while wasting endless hours scrolling sites which pay you nothing, I encourage you to rethink your approach to Steeming. Invest your time wisely to reap bigger rewards. If you have a passion for a subject, it is likely someone else does too. It wont be as difficult as you may imagine to create a masterpiece because you will be driven by excitement to share, because it's important to you. Share from the heart something truly meaningful, take the time to make it look pretty, and see what happens. Time is Steem.

Images

Step 1. Do what u LOVE. Do what EXCITES you.
Step 2. Share with Steemit to monetize Dream$.
Step 3. Remember BOREDOM is the Enemy...
(NOT some abstract "failure")