Best of luck with your journey. 

My suggestion for shortening the drop is to take the time and re-evluate what success is on the platform. Obivously, success can't necessarily be making 100s of dollars on your posts within your first few weeks or  months. 

More in line would be calling success increasing you reputation, engaging earnestly and often with a handful of authors or posts, or getting X/(legitmate) followers a week or so.

Whatever you choose, enjoy the ride.