He’s a nerd in a jock’s body. At least, that’s how his wife describes him.

Paul Jarrett laughs a little, describing his love of Magic: The Gathering, Battlestar Galactica and joking that he should have been in band or theatre club. Instead, he played Division 1 football and founded Bulu Box, a nutrition supplement sample box company, with his wife, Stephanie.

But what most people don’t know is that Paul started lifting weights in middle school out of necessity, not the pursuit of a spot on the football team.

As a fourth grader Paul was bullied like crazy – we’re talking throw rocks at his head crazy. His family lived in a small trailer park on north 27th street between a water treatment plant and the state fairground. As a kid he quickly realized that his bargain clothing and undesirable address made him an easy target, so he started lifting weights to fight back.

When Paul went to high school he tried out for football and instantly earned the favor of his coach with his aggressive physical abilities – the bullying stopped.

Now, he drives past the trailer park because it’s near the Bulu Box warehouse, and he said it feels like a whole other world. It’s where Paul’s story started. It’s where he watched his parents slowly buy one trailer after another and model a very entrepreneurial approach to business. But it’s also not where his story ends.

Paul isn’t just a kid who grew up in a trailer park.

He’s also the guy who gets stopped on his way home from work by people who want to shake his hand and thank him for the business advice via his latest podcast.

He lets his work-life impact his home-life and his home-life impact his work-life, because the lines are blurry.

He knows the name of nearly every employee at the downtown Walgreens because he chit chats with them every time he stops in.

He’s the guy with tattoos who meets with high-powered investors one day and is hanging with college students in a t-shirt the next day.

Paul Jarrett doesn’t belong in any one category. No one label fits him perfectly, and that’ just the way he likes his story.