@freedom has to do almost nothing to do this.
Well, he had to spend a lot of money on mining. Back in March 2016, no one knew that STEEM will be worth anything in future, but he spend a lot of money on mining and he knew the risk. So he had to do a lot of work.
That is true, but he/she is long since no longer mining STEEM. For a while it has been passive income.