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'The Power of Onlyness' Offers Advice on How to Change the World

The world is awash in ways we can make a difference. But often we are our own worst enemies when it comes to making real change. We downplay our ideas as silly or impractical and if we do present them to others, they get shot down and we never bring them up again. Nilofer Merchantwants to change that. 

Merchant is an entrepreneur and innovative business thinker who has launched more than 100 products and successfully advised companies, such as Apple. Her new book is called The Power of Onlyness: Make Your Wild Ideas Mighty Enough to Dent the World. It’s a series of stories and examples of how people turned ‘not me’ into ‘yes, let’s go,' and in the process made a difference in the world. 

"When we're not showing up fully alive in the places we work, in our communities, even in our own lives, what it means is we're not showing up with our ideas and that little bit - or maybe big bit - that we could add to world because we're figuring out a way just to hide and how to fit in. And fitting in is the greatest cost to our own ideas," says Merchant.

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.