????就在圣誕節(jié)前幾天，巴文?帕瑞克收到了一封他終生難忘的電子郵件。那天，他正在趕赴馬薩諸塞州一個家庭晚宴的途中，智能手機(jī)收件箱突然蹦出一則消息。發(fā)件人是身在加州伯克利的好友和事業(yè)伙伴漢蘇?李。

????他們兩人剛剛從加州大學(xué)伯克利分校哈斯商學(xué)院(Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley)獲得MBA學(xué)位，一起創(chuàng)辦了一家叫Magoosh的在線備考公司。

????“巴文，”李寫道。“我被查出患有一種罕見的肺癌。”

????這些看似輕描淡寫的話語猶如晴天霹靂，帕瑞克的整個世界轟然倒塌。他做夢也不敢想象，像李這樣的人會罹患重病。這位33歲的事業(yè)搭檔很少抽煙，身體很棒，喜歡運動，充滿活力。他們都是哈斯商學(xué)院2008級學(xué)生，初次見面時，李就給他留下了深刻的印象。帕瑞克眼里的李是一位非常聰明，極具魄力，雄心勃勃，一心想開創(chuàng)一番事業(yè)的小伙子。

????李在他們創(chuàng)建的那家羽翼未豐的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司中是一位性格外向的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，一位總是從大處著眼的夢想家。相比之下，帕瑞克非常安靜，好沉思，是一位保守主義者，有時候不愿主動參與，說起話來總是輕聲細(xì)語。用他自己的話說，他經(jīng)常被“硬拽著，踢動著，大吼著”完成李推動的、更具雄心的發(fā)展目標(biāo)。

????等到帕瑞克返回西海岸的時候，李已經(jīng)被迫放棄了他在公司擔(dān)當(dāng)?shù)姆e極角色，而身為好朋友的帕瑞克不得不肩負(fù)起更多的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職責(zé)。李被確診那一刻，帕瑞克非常擔(dān)心公司的長期生存能力。Magoosh的現(xiàn)金流連續(xù)多月呈現(xiàn)負(fù)值，公司的現(xiàn)金儲備眼看著就要燃燒殆盡。

????現(xiàn)在，帕瑞克正在迅速地失去一位當(dāng)初說服他一起創(chuàng)業(yè)的朋友和事業(yè)伙伴。往昔的日常工作交流驟然減少，先是每周在伯克利附近散散步，隨后是每月打一次電話，到了后來，只是偶爾發(fā)一封電子郵件。大約15個月后，李最終還是因為肺癌第四階段的并發(fā)癥離開了人世，那天是2013年3月4日。

????如果今天李還活著，他肯定會為自己的合作伙伴和他們一起創(chuàng)建的公司感到驕傲和自豪。他也將非常興奮地獲悉，他的朋友依然能夠聽到自己告誡他鼓足勇氣快馬揚鞭的聲音，這種聲音有助于抵消帕瑞克更注重安穩(wěn)經(jīng)營的自然傾向。

????兩人第一次見面是在2008年加州大學(xué)伯克利分校哈斯商學(xué)院舉辦的一個周末招生咨詢會上。時年30歲的李正打算辭去他在沃爾瑪公司(Wal-Mart)擔(dān)任的物流、戰(zhàn)略和規(guī)劃事務(wù)高級經(jīng)理一職，去攻讀一個MBA學(xué)位。李出生在佛羅里達(dá)州一個韓裔家庭，畢業(yè)于阿默斯特學(xué)院(Amherst )。他當(dāng)時已經(jīng)成為一家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)初創(chuàng)公司的首位員工，而且很清楚自己想開創(chuàng)自己的事業(yè)。26歲的帕瑞克從杜克大學(xué)(Duke University)畢業(yè)后在德勤公司(Deloitte )干了5年的資深咨詢師。帕瑞克在費城長大，并不確定畢業(yè)后的工作去向，但他非常喜歡德勤費城分公司的工作。

????It was just a few days before Christmas in 2011 when Bhavin Parikh got the email he will never forget. He was on his way to a family dinner in Massachusetts when the message popped into the inbox on his smartphone. It was from his good friend and business partner Hansoo Lee in Berkeley, Calif.

????The two were recent MBA graduates from the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley who together founded Magoosh, an online test prep company.

????"Hey Bhavin," wrote Lee, "I've been diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer..."

????With those simple yet startling words, Parikh's whole world came crashing down. Lee was the last person he could ever imagine falling ill. His 33-year-old partner rarely smoked. He was fit, active, and full of life. From the very first time they met at Haas as incoming MBA students in 2008, Lee impressed him as a bright and daring young man with a driving ambition and a relentless focus on wanting to become an entrepreneur.

????In their fledgling Internet business, Lee was the extroverted leader, an expansive visionary who was always thinking big. By contrast, Parikh was the quiet, contemplative one, the sometimes reluctant, always soft-spoken conservative who often had to be, in his own words, "dragged, kicking and screaming" through the more ambitious objectives pushed by Lee.

????By the time Parikh returned to the West Coast, his friend would be forced to give up his active role at their company, and Parikh would be stretched as a leader and as a friend. When Lee was diagnosed, Parikh was deeply concerned about the long-term viability of their business. Magoosh was burning through cash, with month after month of negative cash flow.

????And now Parikh was fast losing the friend and partner who convinced him to launch the startup in the first place. The day-to-day interactions that defined their working relationship would devolve into weekly strolls around Berkeley, then monthly phone calls, and finally an occasional email. Some 15 months later, on March 4, 2013, Lee passed away, a victim of complications from Stage IV lung cancer.

????If Lee were alive today, he would be proud of his partner and the business they created together. He would also be thrilled to know that his friend can still hear his voice, exhorting him to move faster and bolder, to offset his more natural tendency to play it safe.

????The pair first met in 2008 at an admit weekend at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Lee, then 30, was about to leave Wal-Mart (WMT), where he was a senior manager of logistics, strategy, and planning, to get his MBA degree. An Amherst grad born to Korean parents and raised in Florida, Lee had already been the first employee at an Internet startup and knew he wanted to create his own business. Parikh, then 26, had spent five years as a senior consultant at Deloitte after graduating from Duke University. Parikh, raised in Pittsburgh, wasn't sure what he would do with his MBA but loved working for Deloitte in Philadelphia.