Well done!

Leigh beat me to the punch on drawing the ferro up instead of striker down...but one other thing that beginners almost always do is "hover" the ferro over the tinder nest (you *do* have a tinder nest, don't you?) instead of placing the end of the ferro rod right into the nest and touching a flammable substrate, like a split piece of wood.

Instead of striking the ferro with the steel all the way to the bottom in a quick strike, try exerting more pressure against the ferro, and slowly grind the steel down the rod...you will get HUGE glowing embers falling into your nest.

Not to brag, but I usually am disappointed in myself if I cannot get a natural tinder to flare up in my first strike. My daughter at 7 years old was teaching scouts (12 y.o.) how to do it. They couldn't believe that this little kid could start a fire from one or two strokes.

As has been said so accurately before, 95% of success is preparation of the tinder. I can get about any brown stuff to burn, just give me enough chance to scrape/pound/shave the stuff and I'll have almost a fine powder which will flare up every time.

But again, congrats! That first time is magical. Soon, you will get addicted to seeing how far you can take it (raining, blowing, snowing, etc.) and still get it going with just natural tinder.

That said, it's infinitely wiser to carry good, dry man-made tinder with you than depend on nature to provide. A lighter, etc., just makes things that much easier when you may be injured, hypothermic, etc. But I've found (by observation) that some who haven't practiced with natural tinder have a difficult time making a fire in less than ideal situations (rain, wind, etc.)