Look after yourself and others

In my post this morning about resource credits which was partly a cut and paste from 10 months ago, it mentioned that I had around 25,000 Steem Power. This means that I have over doubled the Steem holdings that took me over 22 months to build, in the last 10 months.

The reason I have been able to do this is because while my earnings have been relatively constant, I have bought and traded into Steem quite heavily. While some people think that this might be silly as an investment, that is generally the people who only think in terms of fiat, the ones who are likely to always be sellers.

I don't think of it as investing; I think of it as supporting the communities we want to be a part of.
@edicted

I do see it as investing however, as I believe that investing into the people and communities I value is important. I find those who are only here for reward yet are unwilling to power some of their earnings up to support others quite ethically pathetic - especially if they complain about a lack of rewards. Everyone is free to do what they want with their Steem, but it should come as no surprise that not supporting others often comes with a lack of support.

But, there is more to it than just supporting the community because there is an extension from there that moves back into the realms of investment directly, as Steem Power is becoming an investment tool for investing into businesses, and the businesses will arrive.

While many people might have sold their Steem for what they might consider a profit, even if I could have sold my stack at the highs, it wouldn't have been enough to do what I wanted it to do - be life changing. If it got there again, I would be able to sell 25 percent of the stack and have it worth the same as my entirety back then.

But, that isn't the point.

I want to be able to spread my investments broadly and that means that I always want to hold Steem, because Steem Power gives me distributive power over the inflation pool. That means I can place it onto accounts directly or, onto businesses directly. People are confused if they think that Steem Power guarantees them an income, it doesn't - but there is a mass of potential income streams available through usage of Steem Power.

For those that sold at the highs, how many of them changed their lives significantly? Well, how many of them can buy in at the same level now? Ahh, this is the funny thing as many can't as they are in the same position now they were in before, and others won't because they don't believe in Steem or care about others on Steem enough to actually buy into it and support the ecosystem and others here.

That is fine either way because as I see it, Steem will be an investment layer and while it would be great if it was more widely spread among many thousands of users, only a relatively small number of people have the type of investor mindset to take the risks on it. This means that those who sell will likely always sell and what they sell will be bought by people like me - people who are looking to build toward the future.

If everyone had an investor mindset and the patience to build for the future, the wealthiest 1% wouldn't be so far ahead of the game as they would have to share their wealth with everyone else. The reason they don't need to share now is because,

people sell what has value and buy what doesn't.

Since I started actually learning about Steem (which was about 6 months after I joined), I began to recognize that there is a massive upside potential here and, it doesn't only come from selling like most coins - it comes from building. While the community might be down in the dumps because of current price, as long as people keep building on experiences here it won't matter long-term. It is now that the muck work takes place and as always, only a scant few will do that work.

Funnily enough, those who are likely to get their hands the dirtiest are the same ones who have an investors mindset as they understand that buying-in isn't enough, there has to be products and services of some description to back it. While those who earn and dump here as well as Steemit who dumps their mine help to push prices downward, the investor class will keep buying in at greater degrees so that they have more of that potential upside and while many laugh and consider us fools, they best be happy with whatever they have now because, they might not ever have more.

Most people on Steem are users, not investors. It is like the people who claim to be good with technology because they have MS Office skills and can update a Facebook page - they are users, not creators. It is the creators who can develop products and services, it is the creators who are able to attract an audience. The audience of Facebook is an audience of users, not owners - Facebook is a company of creators - they offer users a compelling experience, they monetize the interactions, they take profits.

Doesn't make it healthy, but they do generate interaction and wealth.

For me, being part of a decentralized group of owners who believe that what they are doing has importance past making themselves rich, is quite empowering. While people might look at my experience here as a financial loss, what they are committing themselves to is a life of being owned by a centralized authority. I enjoy my experience here, I enjoy the community I interact with - which makes it a no-brainer to support.

And, because I support the development of the ecosystem, it is more likely that there are people with stake who will also support me in Steem. In time, we can support each other to have the platform and means to support many more on their own journeys. Possibly, many of the sellers will find that the chance to be an owner is very expensive, and they will have to settle for being an employee. I like to be an owner of my experience. To own, one must create - or buy.

I think that when Steem eventually moves, many people are going to be caught with another man's fiat in their hands.

Time to sleep.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]