Success is Subjective: Helping parents of college students accept that dropping out is okay

Episode 109 - Redefining Success to Meet Your Unique Function —with Zach Mercurio

December 08, 2021 Joanna Lilley, MA, NCC Season 2 Episode 109
Success is Subjective: Helping parents of college students accept that dropping out is okay
Episode 109 - Redefining Success to Meet Your Unique Function —with Zach Mercurio
Show Notes

A person’s life path isn’t any different to building a structure. You first need to know its specific function before you can successfully build. Yet, we work backwards and try to envision the form of a person’s life and skip over their unique function. How can there be a successful form (life) without first knowing the function? What if instead we first understood their unique purpose and where those gifts and strengths make a unique impact? 

Zach Mercurio is an author, researcher, and consultant specializing in purposeful leadership, meaningful work, mattering, and positive organizational development. Though, he didn’t always have this clear idea on purpose and success. His story started like many others —go to college and pursue something that makes money rather than what suits you. Zach’s journey started with working in advertising and it wasn’t until an experience with an inspiring cab driver when he decided to make a change. This change led him to pursue a life of service and meaning, starting in a masters in higher education, to speaking to employees, acquiring a phD, and now owning his own business where he helps cultivate purposeful leaders.

On this episode of Success is Subjective, Zach joins Joanna to share his journey going from miserable in an unfulfilling job to now bringing clarity and unique perspective to people on how to avoid the route he was once on. Zack works to redefine peoples’ destructive definitions of success while providing them a sense of true meaning and purpose. Listen in for Zach’s perspectives on how you too can redefine success to meet your unique function (be prepared to be mind blown!). 

What You Will Learn

  • What it was like growing up as the youngest of 3 brothers
  • The problem with tying success to achievement 
  • The wrong questions being asked in schools
  • Why Zach faked being interested in advertising 
  • The cab driver that changed Zach’s life and caused him to make a change
  • The impact he made by helping students and employees unlearn destructive definitions of success. Start somewhere!
  • The important shift from learning to value who you are now and where you are now rather than glorifying a certain destination ahead
  • How to create “mattering” through small acts and better questions
  • Where Zach finds himself now as an author, researcher, consultant, and speaker
  • Some of the most important questions you can ask to find your purpose and acquire the evidence that you matter now

Connect with Zach Mercurio

Connect with Joanna Lilley