Life is good

Yesteday morning when the lad and I went out to breakfast at a little local place called Angie’s (on Pleasant Street—tourists often miss it, but they shouldn’t!), we were served coffee in heavy mugs like the old diner mugs, but with a difference. These mugs come in a range of interesting colors with little stick figure graphics on one side, captioned with “Life is good” and “Do what you like. Like what you do.” printed on the other side. They are so cool. I remarked to the lad that I’d love one of those mugs to take home. He said, “There’s a Life Is Good shop just up the street. Let’s stop in before we go home.” Done deal.

I bought this one:

It’s a stick figure wearing a green tee shirt and orange shorts sitting in a white Adirondack chair with a cool drink. With that big trademark smile. I love, love, love it.

This morning, when the lad came home, he had two more Life Is Good mugs with him. They were among the free items handed out to the kids to keep things interesting on the cruise last night.

They do come in different colors—the golf mug that the lad brought home is salmon color and the dog mug is a sage green color. The company’s web site doesn’t show these mugs in those colors, though. Not sure why....

Isn’t it interesting that, prior to yesterday morning, I’d never even heard of the company and in the space of 24 hours I am swimming in Life is Good mugs. The company also sells guy tee shirts and girl tee shirts and hats and thermoses and pet supplies and kid stuff and about a gazillion other products.

The company has an amusing history. Two brothers had an idea—in 1989. They wanted to make and hawk tee shirts here in the Boston area—one of the tee shirt capitals of the world. But they didn’t do so well at it. They lived on peanut butter and jelly and slept in their van, but they still stuck with their vision. Somewhere along the way, the Life is Good idea was introduced with the big-smiles-on-the-faces graphics and suddenly their products took off like rockets.

They seem to be doing very well for themselves these days. Enough so that they’ve chosen to give back to their community with Life is Good festivals where 100% of the profits are turned back into the communities to help kids. We’re not talking about chump change, either.

Check ‘em out. I love stories in which “Do what you like, Like what you do” turns into success beyond wildest dreams.