Zach Mercurio > Quotes

“People will copy what you do and how you do it, but they can never copy WHY you are.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Purpose is the reason for your rare, precious existence that is useful to others.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“The search for purpose and meaning is fundamentally human; the uniting trait of our species.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Finally, a common purpose answers the question, “Why us?” Why this group of people? Why right now? Why are we coming together as individuals to organize, solve this problem, and deliver this purpose? This is perhaps the most overlooked yet most powerful purpose to state. A common purpose answers the questions, Can every person see his or her own personal purpose in the organizational purpose? Is the purpose shared?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Knowing a purpose, however, constitutes roughly 1 percent of the work in my view. The other 99 percent is believing it and instilling that belief in our lives, organizations, and movements. The power of believing in a purpose—mind, body, and soul—is what actually transforms people and organizations.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“We exist to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Design people’s first experiences on purpose. First experiences with an organization are a vital, though often overlooked, component of instilling purpose. The first experiences we have with an idea, organization, or movement stay with us, so make sure that your employee on-boarding and any and all stakeholder experiences begin with the story of why.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“tradition. It becomes a culture. People believe it. This is what our next chapter is about—how to cultivate a life and an organization with a purpose you can state clearly and believe in deeply at all levels. It”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“I exist to help people and organizations awaken and deliver their authentic purpose to the world”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. —Friedrich Nietzsche”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. —Marianne Williamson”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try falling asleep with a mosquito in your room. —The Dalai Lama”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Every organization has such stories. Tell them often.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“When you live by results, you die by results.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“How have you changed the world today?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“As people, we have stakeholders in our lives: our friends, family, colleagues, advisors. All these people know why we do what we do. How do we enroll them in our stories to support us as we move along this journey? Author Paul Ratoff, in his book, Thriving in a Stakeholder World: Purpose as the New Competitive Advantage, calls this your “stakeholder world.” Identifying your key stakeholders and enrolling them in your purpose is critical.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Write a clear purpose statement and keep it visible. Share the purpose often and solicit feedback from multiple stakeholder groups. Does it emotionally resonate?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Practicing Purpose Tip Make sure your environment (symbols, people, places, things) helps to reinforce your belief in your purpose.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“The purpose must be clear throughout all levels of the organization.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Success is finding a meaningful need and filling it better than anyone else. —Anonymous”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. —Carl Jung”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Practicing Purpose Exercise Take a moment to fill out this statement template. You can do this as an individual or for your organization. After you have filled it out, share it with people and get feedback. Are they compelled? Do they believe it? Is it authentic? Ask them how it could be more powerful. Do they feel compelled to join you? Make this statement visible, and we will use it in the rest of the book to work on instilling it in all who interact with you or your organization. I/We exist to ______________(action verb) _____________________ (humans, who?) to _____________________________ (think/feel/do/believe). Example: I exist to help people and organizations awaken and deliver their authentic purpose to the world.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Pick an act or task. Think back on your day and choose one self-contained, seemingly insignificant act that you performed. (Hint: pick something you think is routine and boring.) This could be saying hi to another person, smiling at someone, or having a conversation in line for coffee. The key is that you choose an act that happened only once. Try to avoid general actions that span a longer time frame like, “I went to work.” Be very specific. Now, write down what you did or said. Imagine. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” This is where the fun starts. Start to imagine and follow the “ripple” of the act that you wrote down. Who did and could the act impact? How? Did it change someone’s emotions? Did it change someone’s mind-set? Someone’s perception? Did it change the simple direction they were walking or what flavor latte they ordered? Now, start thinking about one step removed from your act. What changed as a result of the initial change the act caused? Now keep imagining, step by step, how each act builds on the former, describing what and who changed after each successive act. Keep going until you reach a point of global impact. Now, if you’re like me, you will inevitably get to the point of saying to yourself “no way this would ever happen” or “this is so cheesy.” This is the precise barrier you need to break through. Our doubt can consume us and bring us down into a nice, comfortable place called complacency. Map it. As you trace your act, literally draw it out. Draw one arrow or path leading from one effect to the next and write out a short description of each effect as you go. Try to imagine at least ten steps removed from the original act until you reach a global level of impact. The first time you do this, it will be very hard. But do it daily, weekly, or monthly and it can change your thinking. Believe it. Once you finish your map, you’re not done. Now, you have to believe it. Do you believe that this is all possible? What if you did this exercise for every moment in your day? Imagine if just one of those trajectories turned out the way you imagined. One will. I never imagined that when I said, “Hey, how’s it going?” to a fellow student during my summer job it would completely transform her entire life trajectory. But I wish I had every day. My alarm clock would have meant much more.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“It all begins with answering the question: How have you changed the world today?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Practicing Purpose Tip While the people you surround yourself with surely don’t have to agree with you, they should believe in your purpose.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“why does your job exist?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Before you teach people what to do make sure to show them why it matters.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Tell the story of why you exist, often. Talk about why before what in meetings. Reward why before what, and train people by first engaging them in your story. Create shared dramatic experiences. People need to feel your purpose. How do your people know when organizational purpose has been delivered? How do they hear about it? Do they see it? Do they feel it? More important, do they experience it together?”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“Dr. Alex Lickerman described this trait in a Psychology Today article. “Our brains are attachment machines, attaching not just to people and places but to ideas,”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose

“What you do will only ever be as good as WHY you do it.”
― Zach Mercurio, The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose