Hello, World (of Steem)!

Howdy Steemers/Steemians/Steemites(?),

I'd like to introduce myself first as an utterly unremarkable twitter user known as @artisanloaf. This website was brought to my attention by forex guy and master of pies, @bulleth.

As for myself... My name is Nick... Over the last few years I went from washing dishes in 2005, to now being an investor, speculator and small business owner.

Although I originate from the UK, I have been fortunate enough to see the world, "the good and the shitty bits". This has enabled me to have a wide scope of perspectives and experiences. I try to see the world from other people's shoes and appreciate the opportunities I have had.

On this note I would like to offer my services to Team Australia, one of the happiest times of my life was spent in Melbourne. Amazing people and awesome beer, what else does one need in life? I hope one day I can return and enjoy all things aussie once again.

There is huge opportunity in the world, individuals and ideas have more power and potential than ever. I hope to join the community here, so we can help spread constructive ideas and messages. My intention is to share my ideas and thoughts with the community and look forward to the feedback people have to offer.

I have always felt a strong ethical and moral drive in my life. When I worked for a multinational company, my loyalty was always to the customer and not my employer. I learned very quickly through watching and learning how business was done, and since then I have made efforts to separate myself from a 'buyer beware' mentality. Customers are routinely taken advantage of, and I did not want to become another enabling cog in that machine.

Sales representatives so often mislead and coerce potential customers, some just outright lie. A colleague of mine, with a military background turned salesman said to me "I don't lie to people, unless I have to" ... This was essentially the first thing the man said to me. Customers were lied to and contractors like myself were the ones left behind to explain reality or cover-up the deception. I refused to do it and quit very soon, the more I learned about the business the worse it got.

With an array of experience in working for small businesses to impossibly large multinational corporations, I decided it was time to pave my own way in business, and I started working for myself and established my own business.

This has not been a trouble free road, discovering how customers can also be deceptive, changing specifications, refusing and delaying payments. Promises and contracts broken, but no effective recourse due to the potential legal fees in collecting debts, you end up letting them slide. It becomes an expensive learning experience.

But, I have continued trying to do the right thing by everyone involved. It has lost me work and money, but i'd rather tell the truth, be realistic about what is on offer. I want to be able to sleep at night. It's not easy though, if your honest sales pitch is competing with a dishonest one, for exactly the same product at an equivalent price, the customer only finds out about the deception after the money has been spent. That sale never comes back to you, even after the customer has been burned. Hindsight is 20/20.

In the pursuit of making positive contributions to society and general discourse around business, in 2015 I joined SoylentNews as an Editor. Since then I (n1) have published over 1500 user submissions and contributed many articles myself.

SoylentNews (SN) is a news aggregation website funded entirely by the community, there are no ads or trackers. It is officially incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation in Delaware (US). It came into existence from a community backlash at the popular site Slashdot. The developers at SN took the open source code which was the basis for Slashdot, fixed many things, updated it, rewrote some of it and got the site running very smoothly. Since then, a community of a few thousand people have formed a community to discuss news and current events, with a focus on technology and science.

There are many websites out there for news and editorial content, but very few are completely community funded and run by volunteers. There is no commercial interests or sponsors, nor is there any form of censorship.

I hope this community can do similar, in a bigger and better way. There are no perfect solutions, but a platform to share ideas and discuss things in an open and honest manner, where sponsors/donors or other vested interests are not omnipresent, and ready to frame and push the topics in the commercially appropriate direction.

I am always looking for new projects and ventures, with an aim to make the society better and the world more sustainable. We are at a crossroads in time, collectively we have to make a decision in how we want to shape the world moving forward.

My goal in life is to make the world more peaceful and prosperous for everyone, I hope we can all work together and achieve some progress in that direction.

It's time to enjoy life and build a world we want to live in, not be consumed by greed, envy and fear. It's time to stop perpetuating the systems and cultural norms that subjugate the vast majority of the world's population.

Thanks for reading.

All images courtesy of Pixabay