People are rewarded in public for things that they practiced for years in private, when nobody was watching
I recall one time hearing an Olympic runner being interviewed and he asked if he was nervous about the race. His response blew me away and really made me look at competition and challenging yourself in a much different way. He said he doesn't get nervous for races because the races are the easy part. The races are the exhibition. It's easy to be pumped and motivated when your friends and family are there and when you have an entire country cheering you on. The tough part is getting up for those training sessions at 4am or 5am in the morning when nobody else is around, when you don't want to wake up, when the competition is months away. Those are the though times. That's when the grinding is happening, that's when the hard work is being put in, the race is the exhibition or the celebration of all that work so there's no reason to be nervous. It's kind of like the old saying about the war already being won or lost before anyone even steps on the battle field.
As you can probably tell by my posts I'm into a lot of self improvement type stuff, being the best person you can be. I wish I could find the video as it won't be nearly as eloquent comming from me but I remember hearing another one basically asking the question, would you write if nobody were to ever read what you've written?
It kind of goes along with the old story of the lion and the gazelle. I'll put the video below so you can check it out for yourself but essentially the message is this, a gazelle wakes up every morning knowing it has to outrun the lions who will be hunting it later in the day. As soon as a gazelle sees or smells a lion it runs, however as soon as the lion stops chasing it, the gazelle stops running. The gazelle is only motivated by external factors.
So what does this have to do with Steemit, or whatever goals you have for yourself? You need to grind for the sheer sake of grinding, not because someone is patting you on the back, not because you have a goal, but because that's what you do, you hustle and you grind because that's what you do and that's who you are.
So again, what the heck does this have to do with Steemit. I see lots of people who chose to join this platform, and then want to quit because their posts aren't getting as many upvotes as they would like or because they aren't earning as much money as they would like.
The times before your account takes off and gains Steem, pardon the pun, is similar to the time that Olympian is training in the early mornings when nobody is around. There's no coach telling you that you have to run, there's no crowd cheering your name, but can you force yourself to continue to grind and stay motivated and pump out content even when it feels like your not being noticed?
If you can't figure out how to grind even when no rewards are comming and even when it feels like nobody is paying any attention to what your doing, then you don't deserve to make it big on Steemit or to reach any other goal you have for that matter. Don't be a goal grinder, learn to grind because your a bad motherfucker and that's what bad motherfuckers do. BE THE LION!!!
The time right now, when it feels like your account is never going to take off, this is the time more than ever you need to stay focused, stay commited, and keep doing your thing. Eventually your time will come and because of this you will be prepared.
Stay grinding my fellow Steemians!!!
EDIT
One last thing I wanted to add about the whales of this platform. I know a lot of people are jealous and or whine about the whales but guess what, the whales went through this very thing I'm talking about. Back before most people knew what the hell Steemit was the whales were grinding on here with no certainty that it would ever grow bigger or turn into something. Back when the whales were earning Steem and/or buying Steem when it was worth pennies or whatever it was worth back then, they were hustling and grinding for no rewards or at least no certain rewards, but as things often do they worked out and that's why the whales are whales, because they were lions.