Long story short - I posted a comment, some misunderstanding happened, @neoxian came to the rescue, and I ended up getting upvoted by a couple of whales on my comment. If you're interested in the full story, you can read it here.

I will be giving away 30 STEEM to celebrate this minor victory for us minnows. More info on the giveaway is at the bottom of the post.

Moving on...

I made $100 with one comment! To be honest, I haven't been too bothered with my lack of posting success, even though I've made more with this one comment than all of my other posts combined. I spend at least 2 hours writing each post I've done on Steemit so far (except for my introduction post), and just 5 minutes on this one comment.

This one event really made me appreciate the potential that Steemit has, and reaffirmed my confidence in it.

Here's what I think of all this...

It is very encouraging, both as a new writer and minnow on the Steem platform, and as a future investor since I intend to buy myself some Steem whenever I'm back home from my travels. 

My thoughts as a minnow

As a writer and new user, it's encouraging to see whales behave like that, by supporting minnows like myself. Sure, it might be in their interests to do things like this. You could argue that it's strongly in their interests to support new users to keep them on the platform. Since the growth of Steemit also means a growth in their stake and power.

However, they could also just not give a shit, keep voting for themselves only and let minnows fend for themselves. Not all minnows will fail without support, after all. Truly exceptional ones or those that just got really lucky would still make it, and Steemit will still grow.

So the fact that whales like @neoxian and @kingscrown are so supportive of newcomers really fills me with a lot of confidence and motivation as a new writer and user of Steemit. Where good content is rewarded, and even your comments can fuel your journey forward, while you hone your writing/photography/artistic/musical skills and continue to post and share with the rest of the community.

My thoughts as an investor (in the near future)

As an investor, I'm not used to seeing these kind of returns on my investments in such a short period. 

When I invest in Steem, I will immediately be able to see my returns in the form of voting power and increased influence within the Steemit community. This will enable me to play a more active and rewarding role in the community.

Of course, no investment is ever risk-free. I would still stand to lose money if the price of Steem goes down, but it's interesting that I'll be able to play a more active part in growing the userbase of Steemit directly from my actions. Also, being invested would make a more compelling case when trying to convince new users to join Steemit.

My way of giving back to the community

$100 is a lot of money! I want to celebrate this minor victory by sharing some of it with my fellow minnows. Let's play a simple game while we're at it. I feel as powerful as this money doge right now.

I will be giving away 10 STEEM each to 3 of my fellow minnows. That's more than 50% of what I earned from this comment!

You need to share any comment of yours that made the biggest reward, and the top 3 biggest comment payouts will win the 10 STEEM. Here's the full list of requirements:

• Comment with a screenshot and link to your highest paid comment
• Account age of less than 3 months
• SP value less than 500
• Upvote this post (so more minnows can try for the giveaway!)

I'll send the STEEM to the winners in 7 days since I need to wait for the payout. Don't worry, I won't run away, but if I do feel free to start a witch hunt!

edit: for the sake of transparency, I will make a new post after 7 days to announce the winners

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This giveaway wouldn't have been possible without @neoxian, @kingscrown, and everyone else who upvoted the original comment in question. Thank you guys so much!