My neighbor and I became friends sometime in middle school. We both shared a passion for English and nature, and we enjo

The low-profile co-founder, Dan Kurzius, does regular anonymous visits to the small businesses that use MailChimp — from yoga studios to warehouses. This way, the company gets invaluable feedback — like the fact that many businesses use MailChimp as a CRM and not an email tool. It does make things a little weird when the biggest critics later learn they’ve been talking to the co-founder at MailChimp events.,Our parents’ relationship was just as unstable. We either had her family for dinner most weekends or didn’t see them for years. Gossiping brought on a lot of trouble in our family’s dynamics, and it also generated conflict between my cousin and me.,But it’s actually even crazier than that, because unlike the strategy Disney tried where they upsold Mulan to Disney subscribers, all of these movies from WW1984 onward will be available to all HBO Max subscribers at no additional cost. Given the budgets of some of the movies, that’s a truly “holy shit” moment. Essentially, Kilar is saying the long-term value of HBO Max subscribers is worth more than the box office revenue of not just one of these movies but all of these movies. And if successful, he’s not wrong! But it’s an insanely risky bet to make right now. It totally upends the business.,Ben’s motto is love what you do vs. the traditional do what you love. He says that eventually all passions fade away if you turn them into profession, and the only way to keep your sense of purpose is by learning to appreciate the craft you’re good at.,Ben confirmed he’s rejected a billion-dollar acquisition offer from an unspecified company. In his defense, he says that “a billion dollars isn’t that much more than a few hundred million.”,That was the moment both my cousin and I and our families stopped talking to each other. It was the last straw for an already complicated and strained relationship. We tried to patch things up a year later and saw each other for coffee, but we were already estranged — trust had been broken too many times.,My cousin reacted in an unexpected way: she said that the stain was on my side of the couch and that she had nothing to do with it. Her dad was there, and instead of showing mature, sensible behavior, backed her up. My dad was away at the time, and he had put his trust in my uncle: he asked him to help us move out and see that we safely get home. But instead, my uncle threw me under the bus.,But time healed things, and we always forgave each other. In our first year of college, we somehow convinced our parents to let us live together and rent a studio in the city. We were 19-year-olds, and the world was our oyster.,“When things get tough and dark — which is frequent when you’re an entrepreneur — I remember something that I realized growing up in Upson, Georgia. It’s something that I said to a bunch of friends when we were lost roaming around in the woods. I said ‘guys, no one’s coming.’ [laughs] That doesn’t sound very positive or anything, I’m sorry, but it’s something you have to realize: no one’s coming! It’s up to us! When you’re an entrepreneur, no one’s really gonna come to help you. It’s up to you to figure out what you have to do to get out of the mess. But if you do get out of the mess, you will have a lot of people joining you. […] I say it to myself all the time.”,By the time the school year was over, and we had to give up the apartment, the landlord refused to give us our deposit money back, claiming that we had stained the couch that we both shared and slept on — a sorry looking foldable sofa bed.,Ben’s first hire and (supposedly technical) co-founder, Dan Kurzius, lied about knowing how to code on his interview. After he got the job, he put together the prototype for MailChimp using “HTML for Dummies” books. Dan tried so hard he actually produced (or stole) clean, functional code which amazed Ben. Only 10 years later did the co-founder tell Ben about his improvisation.,We did act like sisters in some way. Our relationship was hot and cold. We gave each other chickenpox because we just couldn’t keep away, only to stop speaking for months altogether for some ridiculous reason. We’d be best friends, and then we’d give each other the cold shoulder.,It’s been sixteen years, and despite everything, I still think fondly of my cousin. I’m sure I made many mistakes as well, and even if I don’t remember them, I’m sure my cousin had her reasons for being upset with me. I regret not reaching out to her after that incident. She’s a mother now, and I haven’t even met her husband and her kid. We congratulated each other on our weddings over the phone, but both found excuses not to attend.,One of Ben’s favorite books is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl was a psychiatrist who survived a concentration camp during Holocaust. In the book, he documents how prisoners find meaning and purpose even in the most inhumane conditions.,I lashed out at the landlord and told him that I still had two days left in my contract, and he’d better believe I’ll make that communist sofa sparkle and get our deposit money back. I gave my cousin what was supposed to be half of the deposit money and wished them well.