Flippin Fins𝕏

Work hard at what you love to do! E-commerce business owner and lifelong Miami Dolphins fan Amazon l eBay l Etsy 📦💰🐬⬆️

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

A little about me for any new followers
- dropped out of high school
- college graduate
- worked for corporations 15 years
- now making my own path
- Father and husband

African American, German, and Native American - Wife is Iranian

Raising a beautiful, diverse little girl

[Adam Ryan 🤝 @AdamRy_n]

Aldon Smith passed away this weekend. Most people are talking about his incredible ability, potential, and performance as a football player.

Even though that is all true. He was so much more than that. He was a great friend and his kindness changed my life forever.

I met Aldon our freshman year at Mizzou. He was redshirted and relatively unknown as an athlete. His giveaway was the biggest hands you'll ever see and his ability to dunk at 250lbs, but his size in many ways didn't match his personality. He was relatively quiet and in most scenarios would try to shrink into the room vs stand out in it.

Over the course of the next year, we became close. We were very different people, from different places, but we both connected on the feeling of being a bit lost in the beginnings of adulthood. That year, I never really thought about him as a football player. He was just this gentle giant who loved to play video games and talk about life.

His sophmore year he broke the single season sack record at Mizzou, became an All American, and his life changed forever.

He became a celebrity on campus. He became a household name in Missouri. He became a top NFL draft prospect.

I remember how crazy his life became, and how quickly. ESPN doing interviews. Fancy cars being "loaned" to him. And people everywhere inserting themselves into his life.

Despite the craziness, my friend was always a text away.

My junior of college, I decided to take my first stab at entrepreneurship. I wanted to launch a chapter of Camp Kesem.

Kesem is a summer camp for children whose parents have been affected by cancer. The camp would be totally free and be a chance for a kid to experience the magic of being a kid again. As a son of a breast cancer survivor the idea of being able to create this camp in Missouri meant the world to me.

The Livestrong Foundation was hosting a nation wide contest to win $10,000 as seed capital to get started. To win, you had to have the most votes.

I tried really freaking hard to win that competition. I was going up against some really influential people at huge schools. As a somewhat awkward kid in Columbia, MO I had no chance.

So I asked my friend Aldon for a favor. I asked him if he would help me out and promote the link to vote.

He did more than just posting about Kesem on Facebook, skyrocketing us into the top place in the country. He kept supporting me the next 3 years while I was working on building Kesem.

He showed up to have fun with the kids. He helped me fundraise. He helped me get Kesem to become an official organization sponsored by the NFLPA so he could publicly endorse us as as a player.

Since then Torry Holt, Larry Fitzegerald, and many others have supported Kesem. But Aldon was the first.

Kesem led me to move to Austin to work for the Livestrong Foundation. Kesem is how I met my wife. Kesem gave me the confidence to start Workweek and continue the path of building something from scratch.

But in reality, Aldon enabled all those things.

Throughout the years we had many amazing memories together. Having my wife and I vacation to his house in San Jose. Going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl and seeing his entire family make the trip. Meeting his son and watching him be a dad. The hilarious night we met Derek Jeter. Having the most intellectual conversations about life while playing Call of Duty.

I also saw him struggle. There's no doubt he was a complicated person. Truthfully, I don't know if he ever really figured out who he wanted to be. I know just because your'e 6'4, 250lbs, and get 5.5 sacks in a single NFL game doesn't necessarily mean you want to be a football player. No matter the reasons, he made many bad decisions in his life. Some of those mistakes made it hard for me to stay as close as we'd once been.

One day, not too long ago, I just decided to text him. It had been years since we really chatted. I just wanted to say thank you for all that he had done for me and that I was sorry I wasn't there for him more through his struggles. We FaceTimed after that, and it was like the old days all over again.

Aldon was more than the headlines, the mistakes. He was a generous, gentle soul, a kid at heart, someone who was endlessly curious about life... all in the body of a world class NFL player, bearing the weight of professional pressure and personal circumstances that most of us can't even imagine.

People are complex. People who make bad decisions can also do great things. A person can be hated by almost everyone and, yet, there are people in that person's life who still love them deeply.

I learned many of these lesson due to Aldon, and I'll carry them with me forever.

Rest in peace, Aldon. You won't be forgotten.

[Joe Burnett, MSBA @IIICapital]

Unpopular opinion: I’ve never been more bullish on Bitcoin.

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@hicasamadim 72

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@odysseymovie Doesn't sound like many agree, but I'm excited to see this!

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@AskTheFFC @NFL_Convo But Hopkins has hands

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@DanteCollinelli *swapped a third for a fourth

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@lilScooter254 Same with Downs, we didn't win anything with Minkah either

[Tyler DeSena @desena_tyler]

Miami, according to OverTheCap's trade value chart, gained a 4th round pick worth of value in their two trades

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@GhostOfAdamGase But it's not giving up a third, its trading a third for a fourth. And if you don't trust Sully to evaluate talent, what makes you think the third vs the 4th would have mattered anyway? We just need to let it play out and judge by the results. How did you feel about the Paul pick?

[Shubhvani @shubhvanii]

Before you go to bed tonight Remember this...
Nothing kills you more than your own mind. Stop stressing over things you can't control.
Breathe. Let your mind rest. You are going to be ok, I promise.

[Fathers Diary @Fathers_Diary]

As a man, the most GANGSTA thing you can do is get mad at yourself for wasting your potential and then rebuild your entire life from that anger. Don't ever settle. You're made for more.

[Isabel Fernández @isafernan]

Mi vida cambió el momento en que un viejo mentor me dijo esto:

“detener tu peor hábito cambiaría tu vida mucho más rápido que empezar tu mejor hábito…

arregla la fuga antes de llenar el cubo.”

[CooperBaggs 💰🍞 @edgaralandough]

I recently heard someone say:

"The amount of good things in your life depends on your ability to notice them."

I can't see it any other way now.

[Mohammed Jammal @whitenigerian]

Kids want more dad time. Wife wants more husband time. Parents want more son time. Work wants more of your time. And you still show up. Shoutout to the men doing it all. 🙌

[Mindset Machine  @mindsetmachine]

I come back to this video when I need the courage to take a chance...

[Orlando Knight Guide @ORL_KnightGuide]

UCF Day of Giving isn’t over yet! There’s still time to make your gift and support your favorite program and initiatives. When you make a gift of $50+, you will receive a limited-edition UCF pennant as a thank-you for your generosity. Give now! https://t.co/Tojf0PP0ni

[Lincoln @flabbytofit99]

I've screwed up as a father more times than I can count.

But 10 years and 4 kids in, I've figured out what actually moves the needle.

Not theories from parenting books. Not what looks good on Instagram.

The stuff that quietly changes everything when you finally get serious about it.

SET THE EXAMPLE
Your kids are recording everything.

How you talk to their mom when you're frustrated. How you handle it when something goes wrong. Whether you spiral or whether you regroup.

They're not listening to your lectures. They couldn't care less about your lectures.

They're watching how you live. That's the real education, whether you like it or not.

PLAY WITH THEM LIKE YOU MEAN IT
Not "supervise them while scrolling."

Get on the floor. Wrestle. Chase them around the house until you're both out of breath and someone's crying laughing.

This is how boys learn to roughhouse without it going sideways. This is how girls learn that dad is a safe place to be physical and loud and take up space.

One day they'll stop asking you to play. I've seen it happen with my oldest and it hit different than I expected.

Don't waste these years.

STOP TAKING IT PERSONALLY
"I hate you, Dad!"

They're 5. They have the emotional regulation of a golden retriever who just got told no.

Correct the behavior. Don't internalize the words. You're the adult in this situation — act like it.

MASTER YOUR EMOTIONS FIRST
Your kid doesn't have self-control yet. That's not a character flaw, that's just where they are developmentally.

You do have self-control. Use it.

If you lose it every time they spill juice, they're learning: this is how adults handle problems. Stay calm. Not for them in the moment — they're not going to appreciate it in the moment.

For who they're going to be in 15 years.

DISCIPLINE, THEN LET IT GO
They disobeyed. You handled it. Move on.

Don't bring it up at dinner. Don't remind them tomorrow. Don't hold a grudge against a 7-year-old — I've done this and it's embarrassing to admit but some of you know exactly what I mean.

Forgiveness isn't weakness. It's how they learn what grace actually looks like.

PAUSE BEFORE YOU REACT
One breath. That's it.

That's the difference between yelling something you can't take back and actually teaching something.

Most situations aren't as urgent as they feel in the half-second before you open your mouth.

Walk away if you need to. Come back regulated. There's no shame in it.

LET THEM STRUGGLE
This one's hard because it looks like you're not helping.

Let them tie their own shoes even when it takes forever. Let them fail at things. Let them face the natural consequence of leaving their water bottle at school for the fourth time.

Your job isn't to remove friction from their life. It's to teach them they're capable of handling friction. Those are completely different jobs.

MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
If you say no screens during the week, hold the line when they push back. And they will push back.

If you promise to play after work, do it when you're tired and don't feel like it.

Consistency is how you build respect. Broken promises are how you quietly teach them that your word doesn't mean much.

YOU CAN'T POUR FROM EMPTY
When you're out of shape, sleep-deprived, running on caffeine and resentment you have nothing left. Zero patience. Zero presence. Zero ability to stay calm when your kid melts down because you started singing Moana incorrectly.

Lift weights. Sleep enough. Eat actual food. This isn't selfish, it's maintenance on the only equipment you have for this job.

I still mess this up. Weekly. Sometimes I'll have a bad Tuesday and undo two weeks of good mornings in one dinner.

But I've stopped trying to be a perfect father and started trying to be an intentional one.

That's a more honest target and it's actually achievable.

These kids are going to grow up and have a story about who their dad was. You're writing it right now, whether you're thinking about it or not.

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

@beveledaqua @JHartFlips

[Flippin Fins𝕏 @FlippinFins]

Officially beat my Amazon Section 3 deactivation✅️

All products purchased A2A

Needed invoices for over 1k items

Compressing PDF's is not easy

✌️ legit ✌️ quit
@JHartFlips