Introduction

My name is Banner DeMers and I am from Montana. I work as a commercial loan broker and a coal miner. What do the two have to do with each other? Well, nothing really, but sometimes you have to wear two hats. As of today I am brand new to Steemit and blogging in general. I decided to get involved in Steemit because I was searching for clues on what the "next bitcoin" would be and ran across a steemit article that was very helpful to me. I bookmarked the article and returned to it a time or two. Eventually, I thought, "what the hell is steemit?" and here I am.
To me, this is a novel approach to the new cryptocurrency fad that seems to be sweeping the earth and I thought, why not. I am one of those guys who always has good instincts and/or tips but never seems to get in on it. Amazon, Netflix, and Sirius radio were all stocks I thought I should buy but never did. Lesson learned. Steemit looked like a platform that I should join, and I thought, you know what, I am going to finally get off the sidelines on new innovative technologies and become involved.
A quick story on an opportunity that was given to me on a silver platter that I chose not to participate in. In the early 90s I was in the U.S. Navy. My LPO (boss) was an experienced investor that would give us stock tips from time to time. One day, he sat us down and said, "boys, I have an incredible opportunity I want to tell you about. I am putting every dollar I have into this new company." We were all ears. He went on to explain that a company, Telefonos de Mexico was set to revolutionize mexican communication and it would be huge. Personally, I thought that he had finally lost his touch. That would be a poor investment. Too risky. Fast forward to 2011. I was in an economics class. The professor put a picture of Bill Gates on the board and asked the class if anyone knew who that was. Everyone did. He asked if he was the richest man in the world. We all said that he was. "No" the professor said "this man is" and put up a picture of Carlos Slim Helu and asked if any of us knew who he was. No one did. "This is Carlos Slim Helu. He is the richest man in the world. In the early 90s he founded a company called Telefonos de Mexico. He transformed Mexican communication."
I about fell out of my chair. Twenty years earlier, I had not only the opportunity to invest in his company but also the recomendation of a very successful investor. And I chose not to participate.