This should be compulsory reading for all new joiners, many of whom think that you can just join and start posting and magically you will soon make it to the trending page. I remember my own first posts, and I think the first one barely registered 0.01, but I don't give up easily and stuck with it... I left for a while when all the in fighting and bot voting started on the old chain - if there is one thing I hate it's conflict!! Then I found my way back when I heard about Hive and the fork that happened and honestly it is so different now (for the most part) and how I imagined it would be when I joined initially in 2018. I feel now that if you are new and you post quality content and engage genuinely with people, you can grow and grow a lot. Of course, I still do have the occasional post that I put a load of time and effort into and it returns $1 or $2 but rather than being pissed off, I think that maybe some day 1 Hive could be worth $5 or $10 or more, it's not too much of stretch in this arena after all.

Anyway thanks for a great insight into your beginnings and it's not that first time I have heard people wax lyrical about the positive affects of @steevc, so a doff of my hat to you sir.