It's hard to beat someone when they're having fun.

A while ago I met four college buddies, Tom, Preston, Rainer, and Kyle, who were having an absolute blast building a brand that sold short shorts. Chubbies Shorts, to be exact.

If you'd met me back then, I would have introduced myself as a Chubbies Ambassador. Believe it or not, I was a kind of influencer before there were influencers. Sounds hilarious, right? Mostly I sold shorts around campus and emailed a fraternity alumni list telling grown men to buy rad shorts. I didn't have much of a social presence online, so the marketing stuff the other ambassadors did was out. I spent most of my time programming, so I built software for them instead. I loved it.

The founders' excitement was contagious, a force of nature. Not goofy or lighthearted, either. It ran on hard work, metrics, data, determination, spunk, and originality. It spread to me and to every other ambassador who never once imagined they'd spend their college years convincing thousands of guys to buy very short shorts.

I think it spread because the founders owned what made them unique. Owning it is what made Chubbies valuable. And owning it is what made me feel like I could contribute something special of my own, and help them convince the rest of the world of one simple truth...

...that shorts are meant to be short.