Steem is now my second job.

My life took a slight shift two years ago when my main lucrative job was suddenly snatched from under my feet. My boss had been arrested, for fraud, and left his employees having to plan their new lifestyle over night.

Instead of complaining like most, I didn't. I couldn't afford to.

My thoughts were about my new wife and new one month old daughter. So my tunnel vision was back, and I began to focus only what could be measured and managed.

My life became about numbers.

How much was in my savings

How much was my total monthly overhead

How much time did I have to find new gigs to replace what I had loss

How could I see myself making this money.

The most important question I felt, was the last question:

How could I see myself making this money.

If you were to look me up in google, or ask my friends about my outlook on life, most of them would reply that I'm very positive. So my only way of seeing myself earning more than enough, was to be doing something I loved or enjoyed.

I will fast forward here through the months of trial and error while I watched my savings dip. My monthly over head needed to be adjusted. I went from a bmw435 to a standard jeep cherokee. I moved from a plush highrise to a more modest yet super comfy abode. So all levels became more manageable.

Then I fell into the world of cryptocurrency.

Remember bitconnect? Well luckily I wasn't in it from the beginning but lets say I have a few hundred in BCC. I have always listened to my gut and never put everything into one basket. I had various alt coins that seemed to be like a ship with a slow leak. What I didn't realize is that Bitcoin was beginning to fall and when it goes, the alt coins tend to suffer.

I need to park my cash somewhere that was safe. My funds needed more protection. I felt that I wanted to have more control over my daily income stream.

My Hard Work Pays Off

I stumble into STEEMIT. Something told me to stay, sit down, and figure out the lay of the land. So I did. My first initial feelings and thoughts were:

Steemit requires you to do more than simple voting, sharing, and leaving comments. There are rules that you learn as you bump your way through Steemit U.

Here's my only advice to you if you are new, or struggling, and thinking about quitting

Don't quit.

1. Find the popular contributers. Wait for them to make a post, THEN place an "upvote" 30 minutes after it was shared. Leave a comment if you like. Repeat that 10-20 times throughout the day.

2. Create engaging post. In the beginning this will not matter, because you won't have an audience. But beginning following others that you see commenting. Go to their pages and see what they upvote, and share themselves. Begin building your media around the likes of the "known commenters."

3. Finally reinvest ALL of your earning into SP for 1-5 months. It will allow you to have more overall strength and pull on the platform. Right now you might not realize this, but it will.

I wrote this article because I finally feel like I can call this my second income stream. One that I am growing each day until one day it will become my main income stream. I have #dolphinschool and @markrmorrisjr to thank for this. I am on day 8 of a 10 day course and already my earnings have increased. (take a look at my content, upvote any pieces you like.)

Focus on the end result and how it would feel to be receiving love from the community for your sharing. This was my answer to my question, about how I would love to make a living.

Sharing is the best way. I hope this article helped.