According to an African proverb;

There there many ways to kill a cat.

However when it comes to being generous, it seem that we only understand one way of being generous and that is by giving, giving, giving - instead of empowering, empowering, empowering.

Wikipedia defines generosity as follows:

Generosity (also called largess) is the virtue of not being tied down by concerns about one's possessions. Often it means to provide help to others by giving them an (usually precious) item without thinking twice.

Unfortunately, this primitive ideology has crept into the Steemian community and you would find several Steemit contests offering to give away insignificant amounts of Steem Backed Dollars to participants.

This unfortunate culture is also exhibited when Steemians want to express their generosity their large followers or even to attract new followers.

The worst cases are when you find some #minnowsupport projects also indulging in this act of distributing insignificant amounts of Steem to their followers.

Steemian needs support, Steem and community, not insignificant amounts of Steem Backed Dollars.

Steemians want whales to show them how to make it on Steemit; and not to share insignificant bits of their success.

The wrong ways Steemians show generosity

Giving away insignificant amounts of Steem Backed Dollars, usually 0.001 SBD to celebrate a milestone
Re-steeming just the first post of #minnows and then leaving them to drown
Offering to upvote or re-steem the posts of others when you are only doing it for the curation rewards
Delegating Steem power to back Steemit projects when you know you would receive all the curation rewards
Declining payments on posts which are too sensitive to be commercialized, yet yet using them as tools to get more followers

If you think by doing any of these you are generous, well sorry you are not. The result of such act of giving is that eventually, you do not help anyone but yourself. It's like giving, giving, giving ...nothing.

All of the above mechanism may look "generous" on the surface but deep with they are usually motivated by greed as they would all inevitably benefit you.

Watch Dan Pallotta famously attempt to re-define generosity at the TED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfAzi6D5FpM

Re-defining generosity the Steemit way

Steem is empowering and allows everyone to earn from their contributions and interactions. The Steem way of being generous is to enable people become a part of the wonder Steem community and help them to actually succeed on the Steem!

Like they say:

Giving a man fish will only make him dependable on on; however show him how to fish and he would become self sustainable!

Being a generous Steemian is not about giving away Steem or Steem Backed Dollars. It is not about awarding minnows re-steems or upvotes and its certainly not about delegating Steem power.

To be a generous Steemian means introducing new people to Steem, mentoring and supporting them all the way on Steem until they become self sustaining on Steem!

The generous Steemian would reveal to the community the tools, resources and motivation behind their success so others can emulate it. They do not keep the secrets to their success a secret and then distribute insignificant amount of Steem Backed Dollars to their followers while hoping that less and less people are able to emulate their success.

Here are a few steps outlined by @BlockRush on how to be a truly generous Steemian!

#1. First generosity has to be outside of yourself. Generosity on the Steem is only a capitalist investment as all would inevitably benefit you. If you want to be generous, first of all you would have to go OUTSIDE the Steem community.

#2. Once outside the Steem community you would have to find new people, new blogger, news social addicts, new developers and whatevers. You can find them on social media, among your personal friends and more.

#3. You would have to bring these new people to Steemit. Yes, with no active affiliate system for Steemit, Steemian tend to only focus only on making as much money on Steemit before it goes viral and the amount of money to be made is reduced due to too many contents from too many users.

#4. Then finally, you do not simply ask your invites to follow you for upvotes and re-steems. No. You nurture and help them succeed with your own #minnowsupport project.

We hope this post will help make Steem a better place for everyone. If you liked it, upvote, resteem and follow @BlockRush for more #Steem posts.

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So what's trending on Steemit? The answer may surprise you! @SteemitNetwork

What do you think of our proposal? Are you a generous Steemian or not? Let us know of your thoughts by commenting below! Follow @BlockRush to receive updates on the #Bitcoin,#Blockchain, #BitcoinCash as well as other intriguing#Blockchain reports.

Do not forget to upvote, resteem and comment so others can find this post.

Stop giving, giving, giving - nothing! Time to redefine generosity the Steem way! @BlockRush