The first time that I learned about @surpassinggoogle was when I joined Steemit 6 months ago and was told he was a whale that supported the Filipino community. At that point, I did not understand whales or minnows but I did see the effect of his upvote.
My first encounter with him was through a post of mine where he told me that getting images from Google and not citing the source was to be avoided in Steemit. Yet it did not have any shred of a tone of superiority unlike other people that I have come across this platform. His was one of guidance and trying to raise other people to a higher more compassionate level.
Who is the man behind @Surpassinggoogle
When I first heard the name Surpassinggoogle I said to myself that is nuts how can one man surpass a global entity that has been synonymous with the internet for the past two decades. Google has been placed in our collective mind that if you want to know something you Google it.
When you are looking for a number, an address, what is interesting to read, recipes and locations you use Google and think of certain keywords and poof the answer is right there. So how can a man surpass this?
Well, we have to understand what drives him and we need to get to know the man behind it.
Terry Ajayi or your boy Terry! as he likes to be called, is a young man of Nigerian and Filipino descent who studied Computer Science in Lagos State University.
It was fascinating the videos and blogs that he did before Steemit he was the whale we see him today has been present since as early as 2014 when he supported and donated money for the Glaucoma Research Foundation and that he was not shy to try to talk to celebrities to join his advocacy.
"Let's show humanity what kindness is, what humanity is, what true friendship is, what 'going out of your way' is, what 'going out of the box' is. Yeah that's me!"
As early as 4 years ago even before Steemit, his idea of the @teardrops project was already taking root. The man we know said that he was like that since 13 years old.
" I am saying 'YES' ; YES to 'tears of joy', YES to positivity, YES to 'HURRAYS', YES to good-news.
Let's tell the world of ideas, let's be the real celebrities, the truly rich. "
He already saw people as more than themselves, to be the superstars, the gamechangers, the people who would share their ideas and move the world.
He lived an ordinary life not unlike ours as he was worked in a call center company before, ate out with friends and he played basketball competitively. Yes, I knew no doubt he played basketball because of his height but looking at his stats the guy was an absolute beast in defense. 3.8 Blocks per game and 10.4 rebound per game!
If he is guarding the rim you know you are going to think twice before attempting to drive to the basket.
He started in Steemit 2 years ago with the same dreams like us of using it to unleash our awesomeness and outpouring of our brain. In Steemit he wanted to be free, to fix humanity, to add to humanity's happiness and fulfillment. Again 2 years ago before he was the whale we all know today he had the vision of @teardrops.
I don't get any real fulfillment doing it. My being; my brain wants to do something. I want to fix humanity somehow. I have the ability. I have been given gifts. I want to be put to use for the sake of adding to humanity's happiness. I want to give out 'tears of joy'.
One thing that Terry was saying was when things started and STEEM were mere cents it was harder to have your posts have monetary value. Don't believe me see Terry's #introduceyourself post had 20 votes and less than 10 cents and he had 5 comments to it originally.
Not convinced? How about 12 Evidence Proving That @ned CEO Of Steemit Never Plays Chess! He talked about this post last Friday in the Steemgigs Discord channel as he retold his humble beginnings.
Even with the Ned vote this had less than $15
Yet we are complaining that the rewards are too low and it is not worth it. So many people negative and abrasive to their fellow men. A lot are focusing on the bad things happening when you could focus on the good and what people are doing to lift the lives of other people.
Yet what Terry sees are the humans behind the accounts. He reads the struggles of a stay at home mom trying to make ends meet, he sees the plight of a man in need of an operation, he sees the homesickness of people living far away from their families and trying to find comfort. He sees the broken as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives. He gives them @teardrops.
Yet he also sees that joyful occasions. The trips taken with families and friends. The meet ups of Steemians as they bring the word of awesomeness outside. The poems written, the stories told and the art created inspired by the man who would be surpassing Google.
He spreads his votes not just to the Philippines or Nigerian commmunity but to everyone. Just looking at the awesome tool created by another witness @ura-soul http://steemocean.com/voter/surpassinggoogle
He voted on almost a thousand unique accounts in a platform that has 88 thousand active accounts. He is currently ranked number 12 overall on the platform.
Steemgigs
Yet curation was not enough as wanted to do more and out of his mind came Steemgigs.
Note: https://steemgigs.org is way beyond just a freelancing marketplace. It is a community of reputable great minds upon which, "everyone has something to offer".
A condenser made on top of the Steem Blockchain that a person can create an ad for services or products that he can offer. Another person can do hiring for specific tasks or skills and after a job is done then a testimonial can be written as well for the transaction.
It is fast, it works and since it is in Steem it can be rewarded the same way with upvotes and will appear in the #steemgigs tag. It even has its own interface and sees all open services and products thus bridging the gap between skills provider and hirer.
If you want to help out, use the platform. Let the numbers increase in terms of usage. Let the untalented editor open the gates to awesomeness.
If you are a programmer there are things to do you can check https://github.com/orgs/steemgigs/dashboard
Look for things that you can improve. and submit a Utopian,io post about it. Want to interact with the other developers jump on the the Slack Channel
Let us make it happen, let the first stage in dream building begin.
Yet Steemgigs is just part of dream building that Terry wants to do. He is such a forward thinker that he wants to do the @teardrops SMT.
Teardrops
These tokens are freely given to those who are shedding tears of joy, of sadness, pain and suffering, of celebration and accomplishment, of change and destination.
Many people have already received and given these tokens to other people as they see the beauty of human suffering and accomplishment.
The @teardrops colorlesspaper is filling up quickly and gosh, no "black or white" involved; just "human". It is historical.
We will create bloodlines of legends, where nations become merely geographical locations.
We are enroute iconhood.
We will create beautiful testimonial testimonies and celebrate each testimony on this particular Roadmap.
It celebrates tears of joy and comforts those that have tears of sadness.
We see Terry go full circle from the person that first uttered these words online in a different platform from Steemit. Yet the message and the heart is still the same.
The @teardrops made various contests that had no time limits to happen. Things like Who AM I, Talking about the person you were before and after Steemit, of the untalented-adjustments that you have done ever since joining.
There have been art contests, singing contests that everyone could join. The prize being recognized by the community and the @teardrops celebrating or comforting people. Seeing them as human beings worthy of respect and awesomeness.
Yet he had one more thing to share. Just because he is Terry.
Steem Secrets
This was a mind-blown series of all the things that Terry learned in his two years in Steemit. A culmination of sage advice from a person that was there when Steemit was just starting, until now that he is building the dreams of a lot of people.
In a condensed manner of both in written and video form presented by a number of active Steemians he got people to listen and heed the words.
He highlighted that we are all in this together and it doesn't matter if we are just starting because to him we are already a whale. We should have the courage to feel that we have value in the community and that our voice, stories, thoughts and art matter.
We are filling the Steem blockchain with content that matters to someone. We are enriching it by sharing our photos, our art, our poems and our stories. We are filling it with our comments that comfort, celebrate and add value to the discussion. We share things that are valuable to people.
We should not look at the reputation nor Steem power of a person to give them respect because everyone matters.
One of my favorites is not second-guessing why a whale votes on someone. This was some something that really struck me because most people are still living in the scarcity mindset. That they want the votes only to go to them. You can see this in Terry's posts. People will self-vote themselves by 100% to get to the top so that they get those votes.
We should be operating with the abundance mindset that it is those that add value to the conversation that we upvote. Those are the comments that should rise to the top and not because you are greedy and want that upvote so bad.
Those votes could be given to more people and share the blessings. We are in a gifteconomy and should be sharing more. That voting power replenishes each day so go out there and upvote other people.
Terry is crazy. Crazy in love with the entire community that he doesn't sleep or able to go out because he spends most of his time reading, commenting and resteeming posts. It is crazy when you look at his page it is full of posts of other Steemians that he found value. He resteems them to give them a wider audience because he knows that each one is a whale inside that is just waiting to become so awesome that people will follow them.
If I was to use one word to describe Terry he cares. This can be attested by when he was asked the question " What do you get out of helping other people?" and he simply answered "Your success is my compensation"
He is the living embodiment of the abundance mindset. He talks about running his witness server and how expensive it is and how Steemgigs needs a lot of things but he never thought of using his SP to just enrich himself.
Instead, he gives it all out without expecting anything in return. All he wants is people to realize their dreams and be free to pursue their talents and hone their skills. All he wants is to inspire and make people look to the future with optimism. All he wants is for people to care for one another.
So many in the chat were saying that they love him and you can see so many posts that sprung up after the discord show. Testimonials and a general outpouring of hope and love. We all could use some positivity these days.
Another thing that struck me was someone telling Terry to get over his mom's death. I waited for his answer because I am in the same situation when I lost a parent. The pain never really leaves us and during our lowest moments we often remember that but like Terry I use mine to drive myself to stand up. To rise again and fill me with GRIT to go on. I focus on the things that I can do for myself and other people.
Grieving for the loss and the depression is normal and we all have our own time and way of acknowledging that. Best we can do is be there for a person. I would never tell anyone to move on and that it is all in the mind. Support is the best thing you can offer someone.
The Session ended well enough and I hope that Terry will make this a regular thing. An Ask Me Anything session with your Boy Terry and to have it uploaded in DLIVE so that it can be shared to the entire community.
The discussion brought information, songs, laughter, sharing, planning and most important was hope. We all can use hope.
So if you were to help with the next session what do you want to do?
I am asking for people to help with the discord channel of Steemgigs. Let us help in creating some order and so we would want some moderators and helpers that would devote some time without any expectations of returns or profits.
We need people who care, who have a selfless attitude of giving to a man that has been there for us since the beginning. We need people that have the abundance mentality.
This is a call to help lighten the load of Terry and be there for him.
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