Opportunity is everywhere. There isn't a part of the world that would not benefit from innovative thinking.

That's why we need entrepreneurs.

But entrepreneurs also need people as well. They need customers. They need teammates. And yes, sometimes they need lawyers.

Some may think that the world would be better off without lawyers. And I wouldn't necessarily disagree. But after over 20 years of serving entrepreneurs, I've noticed that many entrepreneurs don't know how to effectively use a lawyer.

Have you ever had a crazy idea that you wanted to pursue, but never felt like you had the time?

In December of 2019, I had a crazy idea to write a children's book. It was crazy because I was writing a nonfiction book at the time. Plus, I was a corporate and intellectual property lawyer working at a big law firm. Writing a silly children's book didn't really fit into my career plan.

I didn't have the time. I didn't know how to start. I was afraid my friends would think I'm crazy. I was afraid my clients would ditch me. I was afraid my firm would fire me.

But I felt the need to find a way to follow through on my crazy idea.

Adversity can be avoided.

Never try anything new.

Never have any goals.

Ditch any dreams that you have.

Don’t try to change anything.

Accept your “place” in life.

Take the easy road in every circumstance.

You might avoid adversity if you do all of those things. It may happen.

But for those of us who see opportunity and are trying to chase it down, adversity is unavoidable. And for everyone else, tough times might seem to occur too often.

So I’ve collected seven quotes that I read whenever adversity hits. They instantly lift me up and inspire me to get back to work. I hope they do the same for you.

Most people never get to experience one of the most magical moments of life. It's rarely seen, because it occurs when everyone is focused on the disarray that surrounds us - looking somewhere else. And it seems magical because it's so different from every other attitude in a moment. There doesn't seem to be an explanation. How could someone act so differently? How could someone not react like everyone else. It's rare. But it does happen.

It's the calm mind in a sea of torment.

I walked into a windowless room lined with shelves, floor to ceiling. Every shelf was filled with binders. I grabbed one and opened it - hundreds of headshots filled plastic liners. One of my film instructors was giving me a tour of the film school I was attending. I looked around, and the instructor said something ominous.

"This is the first room. Let me show you the second."

I couldn’t write for six months. Before that, I wrote nearly 100 articles over a 3-year period — all in my spare time. I had built a pretty solid email list and a number of followers on a handful of platforms.

And then I stopped.

It wasn’t writer’s block. It was something else.

I didn’t stop writing entirely. I still wrote every day in my law practice. And I shifted my 15 minutes of daily writing to working on my children’s books. Now I have four completely drafted books and four more that are written but not in final draft form.

But I stopped writing about my reflections on reinvention and creativity. I stopped sharing what I’ve learned as an artist, lawyer, entrepreneur, advisor, and a storyteller.

Here’s why I stopped. Maybe my story will help you avoid stopping what makes you come alive.

I wanted to teach my young kids to be entrepreneurs. And I wanted to spend more time with them. So I decided to write a book with them.

"What if we make a million dollars, dad?"

I stared at my daughter. I didn't know how to answer the question.

"Could we go to Disney World?" my daughter asked.

"Yes, we can go to Disney World," I acquiesced. Who could resist a cute 5-year old?

I've learned a lot in the last 25 years —enough to convince me that I wasn't as smart as I thought I was 25 years ago. It's not that I didn't know much, it's just that I was wrong about so many things.

I wish I were as smart as I thought I was 25 years ago. I thought I had it all figured out. I used to share the knowledge that I just read in a book with not-so-subtle confidence. I cringe when I try to remember what I was like as a teenager and college student.

Now that I've had a chance to figure at least a few things out, I need to share some of the plain, practical lessons. Sure, the big stuff is important, but sometimes we miss the small lessons by focusing only on the big ones. Here are 13 that might seem simple but have really improved my life.

There’s one trait that can lead to amazing performances. It’s a trait that many admire, but also many fear. The trait creates a singular focus that cannot be broken until an aim is reached. It makes the holder impervious to both pain and pleasure. It can result in brilliant works but also broken people.

Obsession.

Obsession can be intoxicating. It can create power. If you can harness and use it, it’s invaluable. And it’s not just a trait. It’s a skill.

When I heard successful author Gregg Hurwitz speak around a year ago, he made one comment that surprised me. I used to think of a successful author as someone who sits in front of a computer and types all day. Almost magically, I pictured the perfect story just pop out of the computer. All the writer had to do was hit print and the perfect story appeared - typed, printed, and bound. But I was wrong.

"Why hasn't this problem been fixed?" I asked. "It's been going on for years."

I was sitting down with a mentor. We were discussing a problem that I was experiencing and trying to resolve. I had a few ideas but wasn't sure what to do. It was an institutional problem - not one that I created, but rather one that had existed for some time.

"That's easy," my mentor quickly said. "Someone chose a solution that didn't fix the underlying problem."

I had just finished writing a tax opinion for a sophisticated client. It was near the end of the fiscal year, so my mind was swirling with thoughts of accounts receivable, bonuses, and which clients could pay by December 24.

I had all of three minutes to stop and reflect before the next meeting would start. It only took 10 seconds before I asked myself the question that was buried underneath the legal jargon.

"Am I crazy?"

Leading people would be so easy if everyone listened to everything the leader said. We could tell everyone who the leader is, then let the leader tell everyone what to do. All would follow the leader's instructions. Pick a good leader and everyone will succeed.

But nothing works that way. It's rare that someone hears instruction and then follows it diligently. It's rare to have to only tell someone once. It's also rare that everybody can agree on who's leading. And you might be thinking that good leaders are not easy to find.

So how can we give our words more weight, so that people listen when we say something?

It's easy for words to feel hollow. It's hard to say something and move others to action.

A bloodied young man walks up to an old Buddhist monastery. He seeks protection, but also revenge against the men who killed his family. His last hope is a hidden school that is rumored to teach exactly what he needs to know. He desperately pleads with the gatekeeper to allow him to enter and train with the teachers. The door closes, though, after a quick rejection.

In that moment, the young man faces an important choice: accept the rejection as his fate, or dismiss the rejection and treat it as the first step in his training.

For a children’s book, at least

I recently took one of the silly stories I told my kids and turned it into a children’s book called CinderToot. I used the writing, publishing, and marketing of CinderToot to teach my four young kids about starting a business, being an entrepreneur, and executing an idea.

My dream was to work with my young kids in every phase of the process. My oldest is 10 years old, and the youngest is 3. However, while writing and creating the book, I realized that my kids are horrible business partners. Here’s why.

One year ago I was writing a book on reinventing yourself. The only time I could carve out to research and write was 15 minutes early in the morning.

Fifteen minutes a day. That's it.

The rest of my workday was filled with drafting legal documents, reviewing the tax code, analyzing intellectual property issues, and answering clients. Plus, I had a wife and four kids, taught at a law school, produced movies, and wrote articles online.

You might be thinking the same thing that a good friend told me: "That book will take you 10 years to write - if you're lucky."

My friend was right. My book on reinvention would take years to finish at that pace. I believed in the book, but I needed to pivot. I decided to create a story that I could publish in less than 12 months using only those 15 minutes that I carved out in the morning.

A new book took center stage. An unexpected book. It's a story that I told my kids one night, and they kept asking to hear it. My nonfiction book on reinvention that would share how myself and others have reinvented their lives took a back seat to my silly adaptation of the Cinderella story.

But I still only had 15 minutes a day to work on it. Here's how I did it.

Two types of faces were on the rink. One showed sheer joy - a young man who had worked and toiled and then triumphed unexpectedly. The other type was the veteran champion, who had suffered his first loss, but marveled when he saw what it took to beat him.

Most people want to lead but aren't sure how to start. It's easy to wake up, start the day, and then get whisked off into the current of mediocrity. At some point, we get so caught up in keeping our head above water that we don't have time to think about how we could improve or influence the lives of others in order to help them.

"You have to read this book I just checked out from the library," my wife said.

My wife's last two book recommendations were The Martian and Orphan X. I loved them both. But I don't read fiction much, as I read all day as a lawyer and have a stack of nonfiction books waiting for me to find time between being a husband, dad, lawyer, producer, writer, and professor. But when she mentioned a new recommendation, she had my attention.