I would tell myself to not be foolish like when I started and just dived in head-first without looking left or right or even in front of me!
OK, so that was back on the good old...bad now...Steemit, where there were no communities to publish through like we now have on Hive.
I would have to be smarter and certainly get to know the people first through engagement before writing that long intro post; mine received 15 votes and earned all of 0.28 even though I used the introduceyourself tag but at least it generated 54 interactions!
One thing I would not change is entering contests; I love a challenge and it really is not about 'winning'; to me the prize was and still is that my posts were being read and being seen by bigger accounts as my posts were being reblogged.
I will always be thankful to all the curators, especially OCD, who have made it so worthwhile seeing rewards and comments after putting one's heart and soul into a blog!