How And Why I Decided To Launch The Asapers Project.
Most of you who've been following me for some time have probably already been able to understand how and why the Asapers project has been brought to life. However, even though I have mentioned many of these things prior to this, I have never discussed or talked about the entire thing in one article. This is what I decided to do today. I want you to understand why and my reasons for doing this, even though we have many other outstanding initiatives already. Hopefully, with this article, I will be able to explain why I decide to not side with these other awesome initiatives we have, and why I've decided to launch my own.
"Leadership is not managing people. No one wakes up and wants to be managed. We want to be lead by good leaders."
In all honesty, even though I truly want to take credit for such an awesome and true statement, I can't. Simon Sinek is the person I heard saying this. I got it from him and I still love that sentence.
I am not a leader, even though I have experience from being a Team Leader. I have worked as a salesperson for several years on many different companies and I've also worked as a team leader. I want to be nothing more than a person who brings value, motivation and encouragement forward, and for many others, that's qualities they see in a Leader. I want to motivate others to do things outside of their comfort zone. Just like I've been doing many times myself. Both on Steemit but also in life.
I've been having many ups and downs in life. Two of the most life changing, crucial and most horrifying downs in my life was when my father passed away. He died in front of me when I was 27 years old... And I could do nothing about it. Since that day, I've been suffering from mental illness. I suffer from panic attacks, anxiety and depression. I've been on and off a wide range of different medications and I've been talking to therapists and psychologists.
No matter how low or bad I feel or have felt, life goes on. Sad but also true. I've lost friends. Many of the people I had around me gave up on me... And I don't blame them.
- I have always blamed myself for all of that.
I have blamed myself for not being able to save my father. I have blamed myself for not being good enough or strong enough to deal with certain things and I've often called myself a loser. Even though I have never given up entirely on my life, I've been close more than a handful of times. However, I don't talk about taking my own life. I'm not talking about suicide. I'm just talking about giving up. To let life slip away between my fingers. - And to settle with it.
However, I have never given up entirely, because I know I'm worth more than that.. And I know that my father would never have wanted me to give up. And this has also brought me many ups in life too, even though it has been hard to clearly see it from time to time.
These are the key elements for my asapers project. My past and my future will be decided by myself and no others, and I will do whatever it takes to get where I want. Steemit on the other hand, is slightly different than that. It doesn't really matter what you want on Steemit... What matters is often who you know but more importantly, what you do.
My passion to teach, educate, help, motivate and support those around me, is also why I've decided to go back to School. I've just recently sent my application and I'll need approximately $1300 USD to be eligible new Student loans, so I can afford to study. I want to focus on teenagers who suffers from mental illness and I want to heal the world a little bit so to speak. That's my dream and my goals in life. To make a difference. To help another person to live their life to the fullest. All of these things, my ups and downs. My past and my future. My dreams, goals and milestones. All of that brought life to project Asapers.
With @fulltimegeek paving the way for many of us, I took his actions to heart and once I was able to truly realize how awesome he is and how much his generosity empowers the whole community, it was easy to know what I had to do. Due to all the amazing things FTG has done for me personally, I felt obligated to pave the way for others, even though this is something I've been trying to do for a very long time. With the delegation from FTG, I got the chance of doing this easier and with more impact. Suddenly, my voice was worth something.
As soon as I realized that I had the chance to empower others, to pay it forward and to inspire people on a whole other level than before, the idea behind this project started to grow.
I knew from the start, that I would never be able to delegate as much Steem Power as @fulltimegeek. I knew that I wouldn't be able to delegate to as many users. I also knew that my project wouldn't be able to compete with other similar initiatives...
- So I never thought of that.
I was looking for something new and something that I was capable of doing. Something I could do, to help others. And instead of delegating more Steem Power to @minnowsupport (which I already delegate too), I decided to do the same thing FTG does, with some changes.
I decided to find five Steemians I would launch this "experiment" with.
At first, I thought this would be almost impossible... There's an endless pool of talented authors on Steemit... But I don't want to delegate SP to a dolphin. The tiny amount of Steem Power I was about to delegate wouldn't make a difference, and that's why I believed this would be very difficult. I had to find people who would appreciate the gesture more than the actual amount of SP. I had to find people who had the same vision as me, without talking to them. I had to see what others might have overlooked.
Long story short, I decided to delegate to 6 people instead of 5. Instead of delegating 500 SP, I'll go with 650 SP in total and the people I will delegate are:
@braxton101, @frankabelle, @insideoutlet, @shai-hulud, @wdougwatson, @yogajill
3 of them have already got delegations and the others will receive them no later than in 6 days from now. @shai-hulud @wdougwatson got 100 SP each. @braxton101 received 50 SP one week ago, but I'll delegate him an additional 100 SP in the nearest future.
Why These People?
So, the question is, why did I decide to delegate to these people instead of others? - I can probably name a dozen other Steemians within 11 seconds who I believe deserves a delegation too... But I chose these 6 instead of others.
They don't have super-high reputation scores. They don't have several hundreds or thousands of Steem Power. Truth to be told, they aren't even the most active Steemians I know... But I decided to go with these people despite of that.
I saw the value in each of them. I noticed their efforts and I saw potential.
I don't want them to become extremely active and make hundreds of post per week. I don't want them to vote on 400 articles per day... And I don't want them to stop self voting because I've delegated some Steem Power.
In fact, I encourage them to do exactly what they have been doing until now. I don't want to change them... I want them to work with me, to make a difference on the platform. To give when others doesn't. To cherish where others won't. To encourage when others are struggling. To motivate when others turn their backs on them.
- I want them to be good leaders...
And I know they will become splendid role models.
That's my long haul goal with this project. To create something new with a group of fantastic individuals who all have the qualities that I seek. And this is only the beginning. I already have a handful of other Steemians I intend to delegate Steem Power further on, so this project is definitely something I want to be successful and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is, to make this possible.
We Will Do Great Things.
You can read his article here: A.S.A.P.ers Abundance Abounds.