The Art of surviving with Art

Yes, you've heard me right.

I know I should be ashamed of it because i am not making tons of money, but everything that I earn is being spent daily to feed our two children, my wife , and her mother that lives with us at the moment.
Why should I be ashamed?

Well it's not a very substantial amount it's barely 800 - 1000 dollars per month.We would need 3 times this amount to pay for all the expenditures, so for my wife to quit her job right now is out of the question.

She is actually the one making sure we survive, making sure I can "tryout Steemit for 6 months", the entirety of her salary goes for the rent, the children's school , the insurance, the electricity and water, and what I earn is used for the day to day maintenance , it's used to survive until the next paycheck.

With @lionmom In our new office/studio

I know I should be ashamed, but I think it's freaking amazing, and I am so very thankful.

People might point fingers thinking that it was an irresponsible decision to dedicate all my time to work on Steemit, but it already paid off in ways i cannot comprehend yet.
From a pragmatic perspective, I envision us being able to live off Steemit in within 6 to 12 months.That's not unreasonable...

5 months ago , I had nothing, I was nothing.Just a musician with an album recorded in 2013, that no one wanted to listen to , with no gigs in sight. no mission.

I was waking up in the morning with no clear idea of how my day would go. I was most of the time waiting for my wife to come from work that's the only thing I was really looking forward to.I was looking for a job that didn't exist....Yet

Then Steemit found me

My first few posts on the platform were really a miss, and I was getting really frustrated seeing other musicians and singers getting their content upvoted while mine was getting completely ignored.

Looking back on this, I was already sabotaging myself, making sure that noone will watch it
The thumbnail was not appealing, no light, the video content not very polished, but still I was expecting an upvote.

It took another 15 days to get my first upvote, and it was from my buddy @prc , the creator of @dsound. He actually changed my life on that day, in a lot of ways.As the first rewards were coming in, the price of the SBD was rising to an almost 10 dollars record, providing us with a substantial amount a money and a good head start.Almost providential...

My recording capacities were very limited at the time, an old laptop and a broken microphone, so we decided that everything that was earned should be invested in a computer, and furniture.
Because good things happen all at once, my wife's company decided to give away (for a fair price) some of their old furniture, while changing office's location.

We took some couches, an office, a white board, smaller couch, 2 tables, we took everything that we could.
Our house was pretty much empty at the time, so we had no issue finding some space for these newly acquired pieces of furniture.

The computer finally arrived from China, and in less than a month I had built myself a home studio and I was ready to go full time on Steemit.

It was 5 months ago , my salary has had its ups and downs, but what I didn't expect, is how much how would evolve in that limited amount of time.

I took my job so seriously , that nothing could stop me from reaching my goals , I needed to post daily on@dsound, so I started the "Song Requests" that now had a good success and allow me to release fresh content every day , while rewarding my audience with a little incentive.

I eventually started posting on @dlive and it took few videos for their excellent music curation team to notice me. Yes, you can earn good money on dlive!

What is even more amazing to me, is that I am now the shareholder of a very successful brand , with 1.262M VESTS invested in it.
It will keep on growing, and by the end of the year, I will probably have reach the 2Mil mark.

it took very little time for me to understand that I needed to surround myself with the best producers the block chain has to offer, and now I am working with so many amazing human being that I feel so privileged, this cannot be even quantified !

I am now a brand, and I get paid daily for representing @edprivat

I have to be honest too, this steemit life comes with its own downside. My life is pretty much centered on the platform, from the moment I wake up until late at night I breath , live , eat steem daily.
Things takes time, I still have my old broken microphone, every day I perform little miracles to resuscitate it , we don't have a car yet, which is suicidal in Johannesburg as married with children, we are actually the only couple we know in this situation.
But we don't complain ,we saw what we managed to accomplish in 5 months, and now I can feel that the possibilities are exponentials!

My spirit rise and fall with the markets, and that's all I have in mind 24/7. There is no other goal for me than to post, so it's a bit of a sad life too, in the sense that I don't have a day off, I work Saturday and Sunday as well.
I don't visit friends anymore because I need to record every day and post, i don't go out in the evenings, my day is carefully planned from 8am to 8pm to reach maximum efficiency, like a professional athlete , I have never worked that hard in my entire life hahaha...It's a good feeling though :)

So this sweet revenue I created for myself is my golden cage, at the same time I am aware that my situation will be completely different in another 5 months , I just enjoy the ride , from nothing, to something to everything...