他永远地走了，他创办的公司还在

    有一次，两人在伯克利校园周围转悠了3个小时。正是在这次漫长的散步之旅中，李试图说服他的朋友赞同一项募集75万美元资本的计划。“我一度表示，‘你知道的，如果你真的信任这个方案，也许我就不应该继续留在公司了，因为这或许不是我想要的，而是你想要的。’对于他来说，这是一种不可能做出的选择。他说，‘不，要做就一起做。我会说服你的。’他真的做到了。”

    至2011年4月，李募集到了50万美元。他们用这笔钱成立了一个团队，营销他们的产品，给每位员工支付适度的薪水，还租赁了一间真正的办公室。面向GMAT的备考产品开始起飞，他们随后开始专注于即将于2011年8月变化的GRE考试。在新测试推出前一个月，我们开发出了全新的GRE备考产品。当年11月份，为推广Magoosh新开发的SAT备考服务，李参加了福克斯商业频道(Fox Business)一档节目。他在电视上彰显的依然是那个魅力十足，善于宣扬的自我，竭力鼓吹向高中生免费提供他们本来无从获得的备考服务的种种好处。

    几乎刚刚过了一个月后，在驱车赶赴妻子家人举办的一个家庭晚宴的途中，帕瑞克收到了李发来的电子邮件。“看完邮件后，我一句话也没说，”他回忆说。“下车时，我告诉了妻子这个噩耗。”

    随后几天，两人进行了一系列电邮交流，李坚信他的预后是相当不错的。12月21日的诊断出来时，没有人知道这种疾病将变得多么致命。圣诞节前两天，李在加州大学旧金山分校医学中心进行了淋巴结活检。基因测试表明，他的癌症可以用一种名为特罗凯(Tarceva)的药物治疗，这是一种更具针对性、毒性较低的治疗方式。

    帕瑞克逐渐承担起了越来越多原本属于李的管理职责。每个星期，他都去一趟李的公寓，两人随后一起在伯克利校园漫步。这家公司的发展步伐还不够大。尽管公司正在产生一些收入，但这些收入并不足以支付每位员工的工资。因此，他们还需要一起商讨许多事务。

    “我们原本打算进行一次真正的首轮募资，希望筹集数百万资本，但由于李正在退出日常事务，这项筹资计划会变得极其艰难，因为他是Magoosh公司的代言人。我与投资者也有些交往，但远没有他那么熟络。不过，这些谈话大大激励了他，因为他不再整天考虑自己的预后，他开始思考Magoosh公司的发展。”

    2月19日，好消息传来。服用了一个多月的特罗凯，同时接受了两周的针对性放射治疗之后，他的第一次扫描显示出了令人鼓舞的结果：肺部的肿瘤已经显著收缩。

    然而，3月10日，李的左肺突然停止工作，他随即被送往急诊室，不得不接受旨在驱动左肺重新呼吸的支气管镜检查。帕瑞克回忆说：“由于他的情况恶化，我们的沟通开始转为每月一次的电话交谈。为了更靠近医院，他随后搬到了旧金山。”

    到了4月中旬，除服用特罗凯以外，医生还安排他接受更加保守的化学疗法。两个月后，接受完第三轮化疗的李在Facebook页面上写道，这次治疗“让我的身体、精神和情感经历了我以前从未遭遇的挑战。疾病的不断发作难以避免。既要做一位时刻保持警觉的病人，又要承受病魔的不断侵袭，这种协调让我的心智备受摧残。”

    It was during a lengthy three-hour walk around the Berkeley campus that Lee tried to convince his friend to go along with a plan to raise $750,000. "At one point, I said, 'You know, if you really believe in this, maybe I shouldn't continue on in the company because maybe this is not what I want. It's what you want.' That was not an option for him. He said, 'No we are doing this together, and I'm going to convince you.'And he did."

    By April 2011, Lee was able to raise half a million dollars. They used the money to build a team, market their product, pay each other modest salaries, and get a real office. The GMAT prep product began to take off, and then they began focusing on the GRE, which was about to change in August 2011. Magoosh got its new GRE product out the door a month before the launch of the new test. In November, Lee was on Fox Business to promote Magoosh's new SAT prep service. He looked his usual charismatic and promotional self, talking up the benefits of offering test prep for free to high school students who otherwise might not be able to access those services.

    Little more than a month later, Parikh would get the email from his friend while in a car on his way to dinner with his wife's family. "I saw it and I didn't say anything," he remembers. "As we were getting out of the car, I told my wife."

    There would be a flurry of emails over the next few days, including Lee's belief that his prognosis was pretty good. When the diagnosis was made on December 21, no one knew how lethal the disease would become. Two days before Christmas, Lee checked into UCSF Medical Center for a lymph node biopsy. Genetic tests suggested that his cancer could be treated with a drug called Tarceva, a more targeted and less toxic treatment.

    Parikh would slowly assume more and more of Lee's duties as chief executive officer. Every week, he would walk to Lee's nearby apartment, and the two would stroll through Berkeley. The company hadn't hit its stride. It was making some money, but not enough to pay everyone's salary. So there was much to discuss.

    "We had thought about raising a true Series A round in the millions, but with him being out, that would have been exceptionally hard because he was the face of Magoosh. I had relationships with investors, but not to the degree he did. But those walks energized him because instead of thinking about ... his prognosis, he began to think about Magoosh and the progress of the company."

    On February 19, good news arrived. The results of his first scan -- after taking Tarceva for over a month and undergoing two weeks of targeted radiation -- were encouraging. It showed significant shrinkage of the tumor in his lung.

    On March 10, however, Lee was rushed to the emergency room when his left lung stopped working. He had to have an emergency broncosopy to restore breathing into his left lung. "As things got worse for him, we started doing monthly phone calls, and then he moved to San Francisco to be closer to the hospital," remembers Parikh

    By mid-April, his doctors assigned him to a more traditional regimen of chemo in addition to the Tarceva. Two months later, after a third round of chemotherapy, Lee wrote on his Facebook page that the treatment had "tested me physically, mentally and emotionally more than anything I've ever encountered.... The constant reminders of my disease are difficult to avoid. Bring a vigilant patient versus being all consumed by my disease is a balancing act that is taxing on the psyche."