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Paul Jarrett

By Asha Timperley

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.

October 28, 2015

Love0

Dr. Shane Farritor

By Asha Timperley

Two growing startups and four homeschooled kids. A doctorate engineering professor, inventor, MIT grad, husband, woodworker and the visionary behind a local Maker’s Space.

If you hadn’t guessed yet, this laundry list of roles belongs to Shane Farritor. While he’d never fess up to his long list of accolades and achievements, the humble Mr. Farritor has quite a story that starts in his hometown of Ravenna, Nebraska.

As one of seven Farritor children, Shane grew up tinkering with tools in his parent’s hardware store. Small town life in Ravenna gave him the freedom to explore with few boundaries, something he says propelled to his career choice and the reason he and his wife, Tracy, homeschool their children.

Back then, he said, legos were just a bunch of blocks to make what you want. Now, they have box sets with instructions. Shane wants both his kids and his students to think beyond a set of instructions.

‘Don’t measure, cut twice’ – it’s his go-to saying when he’s busying himself with his latest woodworking project, but it also just might be his life motto. This trial-and-error learning style is what Shane values in his various personal and professional projects. Whether he’s troubleshooting a surgical robot or building a reclaimed wood desk.

He often jokes about being involved in lots of activities but not being very good at any one thing. It’s a joke that’s funny because if you spend any amount of time with Shane you can see how untrue it is.

In every sense of the term, Shane Farritor is a notable Nebraskan whose work continues to shape the educational, medical and entrepreneurial spheres in and beyond the state. But the greatest part is that he’s living out his Nebraska roots the best way he knows how.

October 21, 2015

Love7