I will say it again for emphasis sake, @kshemen did not do a good job. But before you judge him please read on!
My gratitude for this dude for his persistent efforts to get me here despite the fact that I was initially being mean to him can not be expressed. As I said in my introductory post, I had an experience with another platform which turn out to be a white elephant. This made his job of getting me on board a little harder than it should have been on a normal day. He told me after I joined, that he persisted because he knew what I could do and he believed strongly in me. Now even if I send him my earnings for the next 6 months it cant pay back for the wonderful job he did.
Now that we are clear let us get into the essence of this write up. The title might be about my boss but the essence is far from a personal condemnation. It was hard for me to structure this write up because balancing the tittle and the essence alone was enough trouble.....lets get started;
Why am I here?
Wait? why am I here? well, I am going to be truthful and plain, I was here for money. Please before you judge me read the previous sentence again and compare it to the subtitle. You'd realized I said I was here for the money meanwhile the heading says "why am I here?" and not "why was I here". This distinction is important because the one who brought me here(now let us call him my boss from here-forth) gave me money as the main difference between here and other places. He said, "I am serious, you will make money writing articles". Well, that was a very important piece of information but now why do I feel bad to say I am here for the money?
It is because I have come to understand for myself what this community stands for in my life and the lives of hundreds of thousand others. When I step up here to write I pour my heart out because I feel like I am in a new family and I have to let them know what I am made of. Is this the same as Facebook, Instagram or the rests? Of course no!
When I was travelling to Sunyani for the Ghana steemit meetup event I was asking myself "Why on earth am I doing this?". Travelling from Bimbilla in the northern region in a bus to Tamale and several hundreds of kilometers to Sunyani just for social media meetup? It was at this point I realized that this community is far from a social media or a blogging platform. It is the most unique and biggest family online.
You do what you do and I do what I do and together we build a better community. I came to understand that this is what this platform stands for. Did my boss tell me this? No! probably he couldn't but this article is about the fact that he didn't.
Why should I be here?
This question is very simple to answer and I was not expecting him to tell me this one because I can only find out by myself. Why should I be here? It is because I feel valued. I feel that what I do means much to others in practical terms. On other platforms like Facebook where I have a lot of following, When you try to add me you get a pop to rather follow me. Why? because my friends are above the limit set by Markzukerberg.
But that is very much beside the point, what I really want to point out with this is, of what value has Facebook placed on my content? the articles that got me this huge following, how much value? Is it the likes that makes you feel good on a hungry stomach?
People come to advertise because I am there but how much of it is shared with me? The data I buy to make articles there, who funds it? And if not the same people like me who comes to like my post how do the management of Facebook value my content? I think I have raised enough rhetoric to expose my intention for the article.
Before I met Steemit, I used to be on Facebook like;
##But what is even more important?
We may have varying answers to this question but I think the most important thing on this platform is the way it has changed me so far. I have been here for just a month and surprisingly I gained a huge spell of confidence in real life. I am much more confident now in everything I do. It has made me a better person and I cant ask for anything better. I will reveal more in a contest soon!!
In conclusion, if my boss had told me any of the above over a bottle of beer am sure he would not have to persist before he could get me on. Moving forward I think this platform is more about connecting with others hence before you invite someone connect with them and share the true spirit of this platform before you mention the fact that you actually make money blogging.....
Thanks for reading. You can follow me let's keep steeming together.