ROBERTA GIULIA AMIDANI

To get to know me a little bit, I’ll tell you what I’m wondering about.

As I approach 50, I question whether my life has meaning. I wonder if my purpose – writing to change the world one book at a time – has any impact.

Over the past 11 years, I have worked alongside several dozen people to help them tell stories that aim to make the world better.

For example, as researcher, editor, and/or mentor (in no particular order), I taught writing to a girl who wanted to change the world with two books that made fun of the disabled and the able-bodied.

I mentored a blind man who opened my eyes to how far behind we are in designing user-friendly interfaces. I’ve held a series of mini-conferences in schools about the power of words and the power of good stories to change everyone’s world, starting with our own: our homes, our parents, the friends we have next to us.

I helped a researcher who talks about intentional parenting and who made me realize that:

• Parenting is the job we ask the least questions about;
• It is the most powerful of all because it can shape the future of humanity.

With a colossal science fiction novel, I helped a Swiss lawyer to educate the human race by talking about openness and tolerance, about invasion and migration, and about diversity and possibility.

I was also one of the pens of an essay and a blog (but only two or three pieces) against populism, apathy, and ignorance.

I helped a man research two books: one telling the truth about startups and start-ups, the other about the end of social media.

I stood next to a woman who survived an earthquake and wartime rape and guided her through her two essays, as she tried to tell the story that no matter what, this stuff never ends.

I had the privilege of working on two novels by one of Italy’s most enlightened businessmen, who, in the first, wrote a family saga giving voice to the women in his pack and, in the second, put half a millennium of historical events on the page.

I wrote alongside a couple who wanted to revolutionize the eyewear market and let the world know that a pair of glasses does not have to cost a kidney.

I was part of a team that published a sailor’s book to show children how much our oceans suffer.

I helped a couple in love recount the amazing adventures of one of them who emigrated to Buenos Aires and then returned to his homeland to start a ready-to-wear company and become one of the most generous people in the world, giving 49% of his empire to his employees.

Thanks to a Gut-Brain Coach Pharmacist and the research for his two books, I discovered that the gut is much more than an organ, that human well-being depends on the balance of the microbiota, and that sleeping well and pooping well are the first two ingredients of the only true elixir for a long and happy life. Also thanks to him, I discovered that much of what we know about – and about – emotions is based on fake studies that are still in vogue and therefore part of our way of life.

Thanks to a very famous psychiatrist, I realized that I was part of the stigma surrounding psychiatric drugs and, more generally, mental illness.

Thanks to a community of psychotherapists who focus on emotions, I discovered that not all psychotherapies are judgmental and that addiction and attachment are not Satan. On the contrary: that lo

Thanks to a community of psychotherapists focused on emotions, I discovered that not all psychotherapies are judgmental and that addiction and attachment are not Satan. On the contrary: that love is a drug.

Thanks to a former head of gynecology, I have seen research proving that NOT making love is more fatal than we think.

Thanks to an anesthetist who is an expert in oriental and Galenic medicine, I have had access to research proving that the body talks, I just don’t listen to it.

Thanks to a head of otorhinolaryngology, I fell in love with the cellular universe.

Thanks to a scholar of psychosomatics, naturopathy, hydrotherapy, phytotherapy, Chinese, and integrated medicine, I discovered that integrated medicine still has little aim to integrate.

I mentored a guy who wanted to write about marketing (which, no, is not advertising, but understanding the market and thus human beings and the world) and, a few years later, the same guy published a book with Philip Kotler, the god of marketing.

Thanks to a very wise man, his research, and books of which I was a very small part, I was able to teach a few courses on selling, to make people understand that we all sell, and always, from birth, and that selling is empathy and empathy is everything.

Over the last 11 and a half years, I have pursued my purpose, even when I have failed, even when I have been insulted to death, when I have been threatened. When I failed to understand what my authors wanted when I failed to give them what they needed. When I realized that I didn’t understand, that I wasn’t empathetic, that I acted like a real pest. When I saw myself as a know-it-all, obnoxious and conceited.

On one side, the truth is that I am tired because my enthusiasm has died down a bit. And so I am a bit tired (and no, it is not because of galloping artificial intelligence, which will inevitably end up replacing me and those like me); on the other SIDE, I am tired because I wonder if what I am doing is really changing the world.

The answer is: who knows?

All the best to everyone.