Hello and welcome! Your friend was correct. Communicating with people around the world is definitely one of the best features of Steemit. It is sometimes hard to get support for your writing though. You have to write well and have something people are genuinely interested in to be really successful. I don't focus on the financial reward though, and I just write about my passions. If people read what I write, that's fantastic. If they don't? It's no skin off my back. :)
Thank you for your advice, this means a lot to me.Sir @finnian...