Hi there Steemers, I’d like to tell you a story.
It’s probably not an original idea, though it is all my own original experience, no plagiarism here.
On my birthday this year I received $5 from a friend, some friend! I hear you say, only $5!
Well, it doesn’t seem much on the face of it but when you put it in the context of an introduction to Crypto it is a fantastic gift indeed. My friend helped me open an account in Eobot and credited the account with $5 worth of Bitcoin. I had heard a few things about bitcoin over the years but never really paid much attention as I didn’t really understand the concept and since I spent most of my time working as a carpenter/welder and virtually no time online I was completely unaware of the incredible changes to my life that Crypto could bring.
A bit of history might help here.
As some of you already know I came to Margarita Island (Venezuela) in 2006, to a small village, World famous as a wind surfing/kite surfing destination. It was a bustling hive of activity back then with upwards of 500 new visitors arriving each week. The village had a really good atmosphere and everyone was making money.
With the collaboration of another Englishman who had been here many years I started a clothing company. We designed and made T shirts, shorts and bikinis and for a short while we had great success. Then things in Venezuela began to deteriorate and by 2008 my company had collapsed and consumed almost all my investment capital.
I was left with $1000 I was able to salvage from the sale of the clothing brand and used this money to buy the tools I still use today in my carpentry business. Although I love the carpentry and steel work it very rarely makes me any Dollars and the local currency, Bolivars, is so weak and subject to hyper inflation that it is pointless to save it.
In recent years I had begun to worry. As a foreigner I am obligated to pay for a plane ticket in Dollars or Euros but the Government here has made it illegal for anyone to earn Dollars or Euros. Since I invested all of my money in the failed clothing business I found myself trapped here on the island with no way of saving for the future, and no way of actually getting away and starting again somewhere else.
Being trapped on a tropical island may be a dream come true for some but after a while the novelty wears off and the reality of living on the poverty line in a foreign country is no dream, I can tell you.
So it was that I spent most of last year sitting in front of a computer screen trying to figure out what the hell to do to improve my situation. I took a course to become an English teacher(TEFL), passed it with flying colours then realised that I really didn’t want to be a teacher. I searched and searched for a job online, trying websites like Upwork and Freelancer.com but had little success. As I already mentioned, my work experience to date was very much in the real world so I found it difficult to make the transition into the online world of work.
Anyway, back to July of this year.
A few days after opening my account with Eobot another friend of mine, whom some of you might also know 
I began to read posts from 
My first post bombed. I think I got two votes and made a big fat zero. Not to be disheartened I wrote a couple of other, shorter posts which each made a few cents but I was sure that I was missing something important.
I took it upon myself to do a little research and found out about the introduceyourself category and saw that many community members would take a photo of themselves holding a piece of paper with the date on it. This instantly struck a chord as I realized that in any community one should introduce oneself, if for no other reason than to be polite.
I wrote my own introduction and was delighted by the way it was received. Though there were only a couple of comments; the post made me a few dollars worth of Steem and I was hooked. I saw a way that I could pursue my hobby of writing as a means of making a little money. I am offered opportunities for adventure on a daily basis so knew I’d never be short of something to write about and learning about Steem and Steemit by reading the White Paper, as well as other related literature I found a new and exciting world I never knew existed.
So here I am 4 months later, still working as a carpenter/welder only now I am not as worried as I have been able to save a little here and there and my eyes have been well and truly opened to the endless possibilities presented by the Crypto World.