A few days ago I made my first post on Steemit and it netted nearly $15,000. I was as surprised as anyone!
I then began to look into what exactly Steem (the cryptocurrency) and Steemit (the social media site) were. And, as I wrote yesterday, in a span of just two days I became incredibly excited about the future and potential of it all! I'll be writing a lot more on that as every day that goes by I get more excited about it.
However, one of the reactions to my success on the platform from many people was one of anger, jealousy or envy.
If you felt that way you need to Stahp! Immediately! For your own health and well being.
Here's why.
A BAD ATTITUDE LEADS TO A BAD LIFE
I am 45 years old and have done more in my life than most people. I've started numerous multi-million dollar companies, have traveled to over 100 countries, tried to sail the world and sank my boat en route, I've lived in China, Thailand and Mexico for extended periods and experienced many things.
In that time, and in all my travels, I've noticed there are certain qualities about people that determine how well their lives go.
While there are many qualities that can be discussed, I've noticed that those who are happy to see others doing well, generally do very well. And those who are angry/jealous/envious of the success of others generally do not do well (of course there are exceptions, but it is rare).
I've never delved deeply into psychological analysis or research on this topic. It's just something I've noticed time and time again throughout my life.
To put it simply, if you are on Steemit and are hoping to make money on the site by providing excellent work that others appreciate AND you get angry when you see others have success, you have the wrong attitude... and if you do this here then you likely do it in other parts of your life which will also lead to the same dismal results.
On the other hand, if you see others have success and the first thought you have is, "I want to have success like them!", then you have the right attitude and you are more likely to succeed.
Why?
I'm sure there are dozens of reasons why... but the most obvious one to me is that the person who gets upset by others' success is more likely to wallow in their own self-defeat. Instead of improving themselves they'll just take the outlook that the "world is against them" and pile-drive themselves deeper into a hole of self pity.
On the other hand, the person with the right attitude will quickly ask themselves, "How did this person achieve the success that I aspire to?" And they will quickly begin work on reading and researching on how that person did it and try to incorporate some of those things into their life.
In other words, those who hate the success of others are more likely to just sit around and tell others how much their life sucks and how unfair life is. While those with the right attitude will continue working to improve themselves to become the person they want to be.
And, if you've ever known someone who complains about the world and their lot in life, you'll know, no one wants to hang around that kind of energy... except others with the same energy... where they all sit around and mope and complain. They generally are what are called "anarcho-communists"... but that's a story for another day.
NOT AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
One term I heard about my immediate popularity on Steemit was that it was an "overnight success".
Those with a bad attitude will just claim, "He's so lucky. I'm never lucky like that."
While those with the right attitude will ask, "What gave him that success?"
And, believe me, having the success I currently have in life did not happen "overnight"! It happened over approximately 11,000 nights!
Here are some of the occurrences that occurred over 11,000 nights (30 years) which contributed to my "overnight success" on Steem:
- At 12 years old I decided to eschew government school and decided to learn everything I could about computers, including building my own Apple II+ clone computer myself, by hand.
- At 17 years old, after years of spending my adolescence on computers I realized I had no social skills and was extremely shy so I decided to become a rapper to get rid of my shyness (and ended up as the #2 white rapper in Canada in 1989).
- At 20 I realized I wasn't good enough at rap so I began to work towards understanding the stock market and finance.
- In the meantime, realizing appearance matters, I worked to improve every aspect of my appearance including hitting the gym daily, getting Lasik to get rid of the coke-bottle glasses, changing diet to get rid of acne, got a big mole cut off my face and finding good fashion consultants (girlfriends often are the best at this!)
- At 24 I quit my job at a bank (where I was about to be promoted as the youngest bank manager ever at the company) and started an internet company in 1994.
- I started what is to this day still the largest financial website in Canada, called Stockhouse.com, after taking on nearly $200,000 in credit card debt to fund it (having everyone I knew including friends and family said I had lost my mind to give up my job at a bank and bet everything on the internet)
- By the year 2000 the company was in eight countries, had 250 staff and was worth $240 million
- By 2001, the tech bubble collapsed and the company was nearly bankrupt and worthless. My partner tried to commit suicide by jumping from an eighth floor of a building.
- I spent a year salvaging the company, laying off 200+ people (which is NOT fun) and managed to sell it for a small amount of money.
- I then decided to buy a sailboat and try to sail around the world to figure out what was really going on in the world. I sank the sailboat in a storm in El Salvador but continued on by backpack, train, car, taxi, plane and foot to about 80 other countries.
- During that time I researched the philosophy of libertarianism and anarchism intensely. I also researched Austrian economics and by 2006 I felt like I understood how the monetary, financial and economic system worked.
- In 2007, when the housing bubble collapsed (which I predicted), I knew I understood how it all worked and most people didn't so I began planning to launch a website (The Dollar Vigilante) to get information on the evils of central banking and governments out there to people.
- In 2009 we launched The Dollar Vigilante (TDV) and for the first two years hardly anyone knew about it or cared. We made no money and after having spent any money I had remaining from my internet company over the course of the last seven years, I was basically broke again.
- I wrote daily on The Dollar Vigilante, since 2010, I attended and spoke at every conference of significance (and my first speech was so bad that I hired a speech coach) and worked incredibly hard to get our message out there and it began to grow and make money by 2013.
- By 2013 it began to catch on and I decided to try to launch an incredibly bold real estate project in Chile but mistakenly partnered with a psychopath who defrauded myself and dozens of investors I brought in out of $10 million (it is still in court in Chile)
- That and a few other business blunders left me pretty broke and the public shame of having such a massive failure had me drinking myself to death and suicidal.
- In 2014 I decided I either had to kill myself or change my life massively and stop drinking, be healthier and power forward on building my business and taking care of my family. I went into deep introspection, spirituality and tried all manner of psychedelic plant medicine, including ayahuasca, DMT and iboga to understand how to heal myself.
- After doing that and numerous other things, including yoga and meditation, I decided again that I either had to kill myself or "go for it". I decided to go for it and put myself into my work 18 hours per day, 7 days per week and focused on building things and tried to forget about my massive failures.
- I wrote daily, did thousands of interviews (including interviews conducted by myself for Anarchast and TDV), launched an anarcho-capitalist conference, that most said was crazy, called Anarchapulco, and they have all grown massively since and all my adventures including sneaking into Venezuela and reporting on hyperinflation and collapse there as well as going to the last two Bilderberg's to expose the globalist elites with @lukewearechange grew my infamy. As well, all during this time, I have been one of the biggest proponents of cryptocurrency, including bitcoin since $3 in 2011 amidst many calls that I am "stupid", "crazy" or worse.
And then I posted on Steemit and it made $15,000 and a lot of people with the wrong attitude thought I am just a luck-box.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Behind every "overnight success" is usually years of work, struggle, self-improvement and risk-taking.
If you see someone doing well, and feel angry/jealous/envious, try to recognize those feelings and stop them as much as possible. Instead, ask how they became successful and work to improve yourself to become the success you want to be.
I've seen many people come on Steemit after seeing my story, post a very plain, not well written article and then complain that it didn't do well.
I've been writing daily since at least 2010 (and before that for years at Stockhouse.com and blogging for decades) and improving my craft constantly. To think that you can come on Steemit, having never written much before, with no following and have instant success is the equivalent of hearing that Tom Brady is making a fortune in the NFL and deciding to go down to the local park, throw a football and complain that no one cared and you didn't make any money.
Like all things in life, you have to work hard to do well. If you like writing and feel like you have something important/interesting to say, you can do well on Steemit. The platform has been built to offer you the opportunity for success.
But, believe me, it does not come "overnight".