I have always been someone who loves giving more than receiving and Hive allows me that opportunity through voting. Don't get me wrong I like to receive votes as well as it in time allows me to hand even more out whilst increasing my own value.
When I first started out the frustrating part was voting on posts and you wouldn't even know I had visited as it was pure shrapnel and worthless. Overtime that shrapnel is now worth (today) $2.27 or just over 3 Hive so handing out around $11 every day and over $300 every month.
Throw in the tribal tokens and depending on the tags one could easily throw in another $5 per day to that figure as I mainly curate Sports and Leo. Adding all that up my account adds an extra $450 to the eco system. In some countries that is a salary on it's own and this is Hive still at an undervalued $0.73c so this can be multiplied by much more when the price increases.
I can recall when I was teased by work colleagues when I had a few cents vote value and they had no idea what was being built. At the time I was focused purely on growth and I bet they wouldn't be teasing now if they only knew. Ignorance is bliss for some as if they had spent 10 minutes asking questions maybe they would have realised the opportunity I was working on and taken it upon themselves to apply themselves in the same way.
The reality is human beings are generally lazy when it comes to working on something and tend to give up far too easily. I wouldn't change a thing over the last 3 years as everyone who has stake has something to be proud of. The ability to be able to give to others through a vote that recharges every 24 hours is quite remarkable and why Hive and the tribes is the place that keeps on giving.
I am super bullish that in the years to come someone's rent or a bill could be paid off through a vote of mine. I have seen some large whales in some of the tribes hand out real value to users who are actually living their lives through what they earn here. That is the ultimate dream for many of us and why we take things so seriously as things change the reality looms ever nearer that one day it will happen. In my head it is not an "if" but a "when" as every day ticks over the bigger we all become.