‘Two peas in a pod’ It makes sense that Blaser and Olson would become business partners, as they've been like two peas in a pod their whole lives. They grew up on neighboring farms and were the same age, riding the bus together and arranging meetings at their favorite culvert so they could set out on Tom Sawyerly adventures like building rafts to navigate the Poplar River. As they grew up, they became busy with their own families and lives. But then the two men realized they had both been targeted by the same rare disease: Guillain-Barré syndrome, a serious autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks healthy nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system. This leads to weakness, numbness, and tingling, and can cause paralysis.