MY STEEM STORY - BY @MANOLDONCHEV

• Where my Steem Journey began

It was the summer of 2018 when I first learned about the Steem blockchain. That was during a public presentation, led by a fellow creative of mine, a colleague photographer called Damian, A.K.A. @lightcaptured. And it was only a small part of his talks on a more general topic, just mentioning the blockchain technology as an alternative way for artists to get out there and get discovered. Which is what we all artists want, isn't it?

The mention was brief but there were a few things that clicked in my mind. Instantly. And it stayed there to this moment:

You gain two types of rewards — liquid Steem or SBD on one side, and Steem Power on the other. That last thing gives you influence over content — the more Steem Power you have, the more you reward what you like on the platform. You make it more popular.

Huge curation and marketing potential there, don't you think? Let's bring that future together!

Your SP gives you ownership of a share of new and promising technology.

Now that is one way to see it. And I thought it was high time that I took a brave leap of faith and join something new in its early stages. I was even sorry I had missed the first couple of years. But there was...there is still time. To be a part of a good future. You can't be everywhere. But this sounded like a great place to be at.

• My initial challenges & how I overcame them

I started from zero, invested no money, I knew nobody but one man. I was still my old stubborn self, resisting new ideas. Like Discord. Let's say, I already knew people in the first couple of weeks. I found photo competitions which helped me immensely. I won a few rewards and that made hundreds of times more income than my 0.02 cents dust posts. Into which I put so much energy. Desperation was always near but never took hold. Because I read. I read a lot and I got to know how others did it. They all rambled something about Discord but still, I resisted. I followed most of the other pieces of advice, though. I commented on interesting topics, I found some tags that led to relevant initiatives that were interesting to me...And people kept mentioning that Discord.

You know what? I had Discord installed already, thanks to a couple of friends whom I used to play Wildstar with. Wait. We played only once or twice together.

But I thought "Not yet. I need to know more first."

Until "There's no better place to get to know things. Just surrender, go there, talk to people. Ask. Share. Participate."

• My Steem blockchain knowledge

Well, I knew next to zero, at first. Well, I learned the FAQ section. Of Steemit. And that's my first advice to newcomers. Read da faqin' FAQ!

Only...now I am not so sure it gets updated as soon as it should be. Considering HardForks change the rules and it's the Steemit we're talking about and communication was well done initially. I even got a personal response by email from the creator when I thought I had found a problem. It was my mistake and probably noobish. I was scared those new monitoring sites I had just learned about revealed too much info, including the keys of other people. Well, it turned out there was a crucial difference between public keys and private keys. I felt stupid for even asking but I felt safe again. Safe&Stupid, maybe I should trademark that.

Little by little I got to know those alternative portals to the blockchain and I got to know about various UIs.

It was steemworld.org/@myaccountnamejustaboutoverhere that changed the level I could communicate at. Then the Discord communities. Then Gina bot on Discord. Our mutual personal A.I. secretary. I was always fascinated by sci-fi stuff and this was beginning to feel like it.

Now I know bits of the roles of witnesses and how bad we need them for this all to work. And also I know there are lots of caring and supersmart people here with us. A lot of opportunities created. And increasing. And so there's a lot of space for everyone to find any of the spaces where one fits well.

• My Steem favourites

Well, I came here to share photography and get inspired. the thing is...I get inspired by too many things to keep track of. And I want to do too many things to be focused at all. So...still working on my short-term focus. It must be able to someday substitute the long-term focus some people have or I will remain a child until I die.

Anyway, what was I focusing on here...? Right, photography. Then fiction. I first discovered cool photography-supporting initiatives like @photomag, @monochromes, @photofeed, @photocircle, @bescouted. Then I learned about @travelfeed and I got back to my old love of sharing travel experience. And then the writes communities took me away from my main focus and back into Dreamland. Like @bananafish and @freewritehouse.

Then I joined the @steemitbloggers community, later transformed into the PowerHouseCreatives and I felt a part of an awesome group whose collective voice carried far across the Steem network. And I lost my focus even further. What can I do, I love All Creation!

By the way, there's a time for everything. I think it's the right time for me to lose my focus and ...see the bigger picture. Staying focused is generally a good thing. But having knowledge is important, too. I learn a lot. And I will learn to focus on what I have to and when I have to.

• My golden nugget advice

Always stay focused!

I'm kidding. Learn first. Read a lot. Communicate. Get to know people around here. There's the real gold. The knowledge of the people on a platform is worth more than any other reward any platform provides.

• My Steem hood & its peeps

So, focusing here and there, I cannot be everywhere. Not all the time. But I am a lot of places at different points of time. Cool places. ThePowerHouseCreatives, A.K.A. @steemitbloggers like Steem, is not a place. It's @jaynie, @zord189, and all the rest of the souls working for promoting the blockchain through their ideas. Supported and inspired by @theycallmedan, @bluemist, and others.

I also loved and will love being part of the @bananafish realm, the @crowdmind group, @travelfeed, @fundition, where projects begin and reach their own skies (I started a couple, participated in a couple. Even without the sub-platform we created a couple of books and put them out there on Amazon in an attempt to promote the blockchain of Steem as a place to get to know people and do the job with them. That was our @steemfiction period when I felt a part of a good writing and editing team...). Also, the PeoplePhotography challenge that was, an awesome initiative by @worldcapture. The constant motivation, and discussions that go along with the posts of @tarazkp, one of the most dedicated Steemians I can think of right now.

And since my mind can encompass only a bit of all the clouds of awesomeness, I shall try and give it a rest. There's much more to be discovered around here and I will leave that to those of you who have the passion and the patience to bring some change to themselves and their environment.

Peace!

Manol

P.S. Let me tag my five choices here, of people whose stories I would like to read and learn from. Hey, @worldcapture, @vesytz, @lightcaptured, @outlinez, @jpphotography, would you like to join on the initiative?