This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfizer,

editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine.

And I'm money expert Nicole Lappin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help

callers solve their work problems. And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

And it starts now.

Something bad has happened, and now you are imagining the worst. You can see the domino's falling, you know, one bad event triggering the next bad event triggering the next bad event and on and on until you are in a full-blown crisis.

Career is destroyed, life is ruined, I'm sure you have felt that way.

I have to, believe me.

But today, I want to stop your panic. I want to put whatever terrible

event, whatever awful thing has happened to you in perspective. Because here's the

thing. Life is not linear.

Life is reactive.

And if you can appreciate that, then you are on the road to something better.

I will explain what that means, but first I'm

going to tell you about the truly worst thing that has ever happened to me and

how it also became one of the best. Okay I almost never talk about this in public but here it goes.

In 2015 I was sued. It was a totally bogus absurd lawsuit, but if you know anything about the court system and unfortunately I now know a lot about the court system, then you know this.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how bogus, how absurd a lawsuit is.

Anyone can sue for anything in America, which means that lawyers and endless costs and

incredible stress are inevitable. You get dragged into it.

I lost so much sleep. I had no appetite. I imagined my family being bankrupt. It was it was awful.

And you know there is never a good time for something like that, but

...