Hello, @bollutech. Welcome to AMAWED! My response to your questions would be

1. Having lots of steemit followers is good. However, it doesn't translate to the number of upvotes you will get. More so, the number of upvotes that you have doesn't translate to how much you'll get as payout after 7 days. In steemit, you have some followers that are dead followers, there are some that are ghost followers. These have only followed you, but they are not active followers, so it all depends on the kind of followers that you have attracted over time. This app created by @pilcrow and @sjennon would help you get a good insight into your question regarding followers.

2. Well, minnows can overcome the challenges facing them, if they first study the challenges and understand them. Then they can now begin to search for solutions. I believe that there is no challenge or problem that does not have a solution. More often than not, the solution lies in the minnows looking for people, who can help them overcome their challenges. They could also look for other resources, (like posts of veteran Steemians, youtube videos, that can be of help. So, that is basically how I can answer your question . Moreover,it would be wise for minnows to look for someone who is knowledgeable about their problems or those who can help you look for somebody who can refer you to another person who could be of help. Alternatively, the minnow can write a post about the problem and wait for honest responses from other steemians. Personally, I did this in my early days in steemit. I still ask questions ask questions. Whenever, a minnow wants to use a post to ask direct questions, he should use the question tag , or steemit help tag, as first tag so that those who can help him will come to his aid.

3. In the 6 months that I've been on steemit, I've not seen where one's reputation gets one's work resteemed. Creating and posting good content is what will make your work to be considered for resteem. Where reputation plays a role is this. The higher your reputation, the more visible your post would be. The lower your reputation, the less likely your post would be seen.

4. Please, read @oluwoleolaide's very good response on mentorship.

5. Minnows can recognize whales, judging from the vests /steem power that they have. So, basically a whale is a Steemian who has 1 billion vests /about 500 million steem power (SP). See witness @arcange's update 6 of steemitboard on the different classes of Steemians. As at today, there are only 41 steemit whales.The graph shown below was sourced from @arcange's daily steemit statistics report

@maryfavour for @redfishpillar project.