Introduction - Why I Waited (6) Months Before Writing My First Post on Steemit!

My pen name is Internistic. I have been a regular Steemit reader since the beginning, which goes back to just a few weeks before the first payout in July.

One thing that caught my eye at first was how grassroots friendly this platform was. I was impressed by the fact that any ordinary person or group could easily turn their idea into a business on the Steem blockchain. And that they could do so without asking permission to anyone. For me that was a huge step forward with respect to providing economic empowerment to people.

Another thing I found groundbreaking was Steemit's "onboarding mechanism" - which is the process of getting new users to use a cryptocurrency. In allowing someone to get their first Steems by simply writing a blog post, Steemit became in my eyes the easiest cryptocurrency platform for anyone to get started with. I believe that this is Steemit's most groundbreaking innovation. Which is why I decided to follow this project from day one.

Anyway, after creating my account, I took the habit of coming back and reading the most trending posts of the day every single day. I remember that @cryptoctopus used to be one of my favorite Steemit posters at the time. He wrote tons of posts, was very engaged with the community and I kind of wished I could be like him in that regard. "Why just be a consumer of content when I could also be a content contributor myself like this guy? I thought. But I chose not to. And if you want to know why, it's simply because of the following reason:

I Knew My Posts Would Be Controversial And I Was Concerned About Job Related Consequences!

You see, as far back as I can remember I have always considered myself a contrarian in life. More often than not, my opinions on many issues are not considered politically correct. My ideas tend to be way out to the right or way out to the left side of public opinion. And I have been frustrated in that area my whole life as I never felt free to express myself the way I wanted to.

I worried that if I were to really speak my mind, if I decided to say what I really thought about many issues, that certain people (or groups) could get offended. And because of the kind of work I do, there could be some serious consequences with respect to my job, including the possibility of being fired or completely ruining my career. And this is a price I can not afford to pay at this time.

So as I went through the thoughts of whether to blog or not, I said to myself, you know what? "Steemit may be cool, but I would rather be a Read-Only user on their website and not a writer for the time being". Then on that thought, I left it alone!

But Then a Light Bulb Went on (!)

What happened next was that, one day as I browsed through older Steemit posts. I came accross an article by @steemcleaners which was titled: "The Steemcleaners guide For Dealing With Abuse on Steemit". That article was a Game-changer for me because what I learned was that anyone was allowed to use a pen name to protect their privacy should they decide to do so when they write a blog post on Steemit. And that the way to do that is to follow some abuse-prevention rules as described by @Steemcleaners in that post. Link below.

https://steemit.com/steemcleaners/@steemcleaners/the-steemcleaners-guide-for-dealing-with-abuse-on-steemit

So basically my understanding of their guidelines is the following:

Do not claim to be an important or popular persona or you must be verified. If you use a personal photo you must be prepared to verify it. Always use original content. If not, you must verify its source.

Therefore since I am not claiming to be an important or popular person. Since I am not using any personal photos. And considering that I am only using original content, I conclude that those@steemcleaners rules have essentially cleared the way for me to write my posts using nothing else but a pen name on the Steemit platform going forward.

Besides Speaking My mind on Controversial Issues - What Else Will I Write About on Steemit?

Once I made up my mind. Once I knew I was about to start blogging, I began asking myself some questions to determine what it is I was going to write about. Some of those questions were: Besides getting mad about people and stuff, what else can I do for the community? Which group right now has the greatest need for help on Steemit?

And the answer was: The Minnows!

In determining my audience, one thing that was of great help for me, was the fact that over the last few months I had the opportunity to discover many great Steemit authors and reading a large number of their posts. In that process, I discovered the Minnows which as you probably know, are considered the lower class and the underdogs in the Steemit community.

And since I usually root for the underdogs - both in sports and in life, - it seemed a natural choice for me to side with the Minnows and trying to help them. But not only that, since I am starting out on Steemit as a Minnow myself - at least in the beginning - it just makes sense for me to be on the same team as they are.

If you've read my post up to this point I thank you for your interest in my story . I'll take this opportunity to share the subject of my future posts with you. That way you may decide to follow me if any of these subjects is of interest to you. Here they are:

a) Learn Why Cocaine and Meth Addicts Can Be Top Producers in These Two Surprisingly High Paying Jobs! (No - It's Not what you're thinking!)

b) The One-child Rule May be Cruel But it's the Only Real Solution to Feeding The Poor! Let Me Explain!