Who are you? Who...Are You? I'm a Walrus

Ok, I'm not Anthony Michael Hall. So who am I?

My name is Derek Paredes and I am the middle of 5 very funny yet very dysfunctional children.

Yup, that's me in the White sweater. And that middle child syndrome paid off in the long run, let me tell you.

Anyway, my Dad on the right there, he was a pretty brilliant Doctor and Professor of Medicine, God Rest his soul. Good Dad, raised us kids firmly when he had to but always made sure we had shelter, food, clothes and love. Mom was the pacifier and defender even if she knew you messed up. "Give the kids the benefit of the doubt" was usually her go to. But on the same token, if you crossed her up she'd be the first to grab the wooden spoon off the wall if she had to. I got plenty of that action.

I was pretty hard-headed as a kid; I blame the LEO in me. Horrific student. Always doodling instead of listening. Watching TV instead of doing homework and then lying about it. Changing my F's to B's with the black ink of a pen.

Growing up in Massachusetts was awesome. Great Sports town, changes in Seasons and our house was literally right on the ocean of Minot Beach. This was the view from my house most of my childhood.

And this was my parents house. If you want to know more about that top bedroom with the 3 windows I have stories for days

So now that you know I grew up in Massachusetts then you already know Tom Brady is God, the Bruins are the toughest team in Hockey, the Red Sox ahh wicked pissah and the Celtics are the greatest NBA franchise of all time. #facts Boston is one of the greatest sports cities on the planet. End of discussion ;)

So fast forward a little bit and back to me, I got married when I was 23 and that was waaaaay too early. I didn't know shit about being a man, how the hell could I know how to be a husband? So that failed after 5 years and thankfully so. We were so wrong for each other on so many levels and immature, both of us. However...Learning experience. We both moved on to better relationships and started families. We remain kind to each other today.

Professionally...let's see if I can keep this as short as possible. I've chosen the wrong profession from day one. I enjoy making people laugh and probably should have studied comedy a long time ago. I was also born with an ability to draw. Never had any classes but I'm ok for never having any classes. Doodled this one when I first touched a Wacom tablet.

But instead I studied Computer Graphics in College and ended up learning a little more with Photoshop and layout etc... Here's a sports thing I made for a friend of mine who ran a Playstation 4 Madden League. I like doing stuff like this.

I landed a graphics job in Promotional Products straight out of college and spent over 20 years doing that until I left to start my own business. I opened Camera Ready Now in 2013. But that quickly exhausted me and wasn't putting enough bread on my family table. It's hard to compete in the Art Business when your competition is the entire country of India who will do the same job for 10 times less.

And now I work for the Largest RV Dealership in the World. A place called Lazydays RV. Perhaps you've heard of them before or seen them on TV with a show called Bigtime RV. That's filmed mostly here in Tampa, Florida.

My latest and most current adventure is a business I just got involved in which is Cryptocurrency Education. What an absolutely fantastic product in iCoin Pro. And not just because I'm a distributor, I really can't believe all the amazing knowledge I'm getting from this material. And the fact Cryptocurrency is so new and just now becoming globally mainstream, it's just an incredible thing to be a part of. EVERYONE reading this right now should invest in Cryptocurrency Education. You are most certainly going to need it and iCoin Pro is the definitive resource.

From the CEO to his awesome support staff to all the Monster Marketing Gurus to the people in the Facebook group....so many people willing to help and teach. I'm getting way more for my money's worth than I expected. They just released a new module (at no extra cost) that literally teaches you how to buy, sell, and trade coins like you would on the Stock Market except this is digital currency.

If you'd like to learn more about iCoin Pro and the 5 amazing ways I get paid from it, just check my profile and my link is there.

And for the sake of all mankind, you should keep this article moving because you, me and everyone else needs this.

Let's see what else I can tell you about me that isn't so business related.

I love Rock and Metal music, I love gaming even though I suck ass at it. I like eating bad foods and drinking beer every now and then but I also like to work out and live healthy. I like girls and always will. Thank you God for all the glorious work you do. Keep them coming (gets slapped by fiance). What? I have eyes. I can appreciate if I want to :) I hate racism and selfish people.

My goal in life is to reach financial freedom on a whole new level I never imagined. I realize in order to do that I'm going to have to read more, study more, learn more, dare more, give more, invest more, be less afraid, take chances, embrace risk, and follow the lead of other successful people around me. I hope one day to do Stand Up Comedy because I think I can do it.

I choose positivity over negativity any day of the week and I always wake up every day with the intent of living a good and fruitful life. I want to reach a point where my successes can touch others and I can help them in return.

Without this turning into a complete novel, I'm going to leave this little introduction here. I think that's me in a nutshell. Feel free to reach out and follow me or support me and my life. I will never reject that kind of love.

#blessings