Stephen Scoggins presents a short YouTube talk explaining the "Passion Pentagon", a five-step framework to help people build purpose-driven professions. He opens by citing a Gallup stat about job dissatisfaction, then walks viewers through clarifying an aspirational identity (20-year vision), assessing natural gifts/talents, listing things you'd do for free, shaping a mission-driven contribution to sustain you through setbacks, and finally determining monetization paths (including apprenticeships). He includes an anecdote of a gym worker who became a real estate agent and increased earnings dramatically.
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Did you know a recent global Gallup poll said that 85%, 85% of people would actually say they actually hate their job? Well, I want to help you avoid this costly mistake. In this video, we're going to cover some areas to help make the Pentagon of passion work for you.
You know, when you start hearing statistics like that, it makes you wonder, is anybody really happy anymore? Well, happiness comes in a lot of different forms, lots of different varieties. But one of the places we spend the most time in is our overall profession or the jobs that are leading us to that ultimate profession. Most people, unfortunately are spending their times in those professions, unfortunately for things they're not super passionate about or working for people they're not super passionate about. So it's very important to find a purpose driven passion that you can actually create a profession out of. That's a lot of P's, right? But, but the key is, is to make sure that your profession is beginning to match where you want to head in your life. Now. You don't have to get there overnight, you don't have to get there right away, and you don't have to come straight out of high school or college or any kind of degree program and go right immediately into that job you love, which I think is a fallacy. I think far too many of us are expecting to land right smack dab in the career we're going to love when most of us will change our career somewhere between three to eight times in our entire lifetime. I myself was the owner of several companies, had other businesses that weren't as successful as some of the others. Right. These are all learning lessons to help us discover what that purpose driven passion profession is. So I use a technique called the Pentagon of passion to help me better understand how I'm going to land in a place that I can make the largest impact. And here we are. So step one, right, is I want to clarify.
Who and what I want to become, clearly define it in writing and put it in front of yourself. We call that the aspiration, otherwise known as the aspirational identity. Who do you want to go from to? Do you want to go from working at maybe a fast food place to working as an investment banker? Do you want to go from working as a landscaper to owning a landscaping company? That's an aspirational identity, especially in terms of a profession so clearly articulate who and what you want to become. Now it's important to use, I refer to as a 20 year vision.
And look, I realize some of you are like 20 years is a long time. And first of all, it's not going to take you that long. Second of all, 20 years is going to fly by like nobody's business. Okay? You don't want to take for granted that that time that's needed to create the best version of you to get to where you want to go. You don't take for granted that there's time to clarify what that is. Okay, so what is your 20 year vision here? Who do you want? Who do you see yourself down the line? Okay. Some would say the epitaph, right on my epitaph. Now, it's not trying to be morbid, but if I have a gravestone, I want it to say something along the lines of, here lies a man who sought to change the world and almost did. Right? Because I know I can't do it by myself. But if I put forth my 20 year epitaph, my 50 year epitaph, my goals that way, my outcomes that way, it's a better way of understanding who it is I want to become and why. Okay? So make sure you do that. Step two, Do a clear assessment. Okay. Of your natural gifts and talents. Natural gifts and talents. Can you imagine, even for a brief second, if I decided that I was going to have a profession as an editor? Really? My spelling is horrendous.
Right? It's not a natural gift, it's not a natural talent. It's not something I naturally do well. So what is something I do well? What is a natural gift for me? Historically, I'm pretty decent with building relationships. I'm pretty decent in understanding the behaviors of people. I'm pretty decent at building and running businesses. Those are natural gifts and talents. And when you articulate what those natural gifts and talents are in a succinct form, you're able to start to begin a professionalist. I once had a young man that I was working with not long ago who said he was working as he was working at a local gym, as the front row, the front desk guy, who said, hey, look, I'm just feeling like life's not mattering up. I don't feel like what I'm doing matters. I just don't feel like life doesn't have meaning. I'm like, well, let's go through an exercise. And we used the Pentagon of passion to kind of figure this out. And here's what we discovered. He likes people. He liked the home building industry. He liked the things that came with that. The profession of the real estate market. Right. And he also liked the fact that it was a decent level of income he could earn. Okay. So we began to think and basically he became a person who sold homes. And you know what? In one year's time, after going through the process of getting his license put together, he went from making $12 an hour to making $60,000 in one year.
Did that change some things? Of course it did. Now he makes well over that. Okay, that's what I mean. All right, next one. What is the thing you've probably heard this before that you would do for free? Okay. With the Journey Principles Institute, when I set out to build this company, when I set out to hopefully change a million lives and transform a million lives, this is something I would do for free. It's something I love. I love seeing the aha moment. I love seeing the person who was stuck and now is like grinding it out and making their dreams a reality.
What inside of you is that thing? What would you do for free if you could. If money was no object? What are five or six different professions that would allow you to exercise your gifts, that would allow you to exercise your aspirations? Right. And that you would do for free if money was no object. Keep that list. Keep that list. Make that list. Create that list. Keep that list in front of you. Because the next step is the important step. How can I take all that information and shape a mission driven contribution? The reason that's important is because you are going to hit adversity along the way in creating the profession that you really love. That's just a reality. You're going to have some stumbling blocks, you're going to have some hurdles. When it's a mission driven contribution, inevitably what's going to happen is when these things happen and you feel like quitting, you won't.
You will keep fighting. You'll turn your pain and turn it into power. You will keep fighting and grinding and as a result, you'll continue to escalate and move, as we like to say, from stuck to unstoppable. But you got to have that mission driven side of it. It's got to be. There's got to be a greater meaning behind just making more money.
Okay? It's a process. The final step is how and what way can I get paid for it?
Most people think they have to jump into that career. They have to immediately make that kind of money, rather than if it's something that you love. In other words, if it's an aspirational identity, I can use my gifts and my talents. It's something I would do for free.
Then inevitably what happens is if I operate in it correctly, I create a mission driven mission. But most people don't realize that they don't have to go immediately from start to finish.
Everything that I've learned in the form of business and entrepreneurship and things of that nature, I didn't learn in high school. Okay, why I didn't graduate high school, I'm a GED guy. But I went on to build large companies with big teams, great teams, great people, because people came alongside of me. I became an apprentice to some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet.
Maybe consider becoming an apprentice working under these people. Maybe even in some cases, maybe even doing it for free for a small season.
Because once you're clear on who you are and where you're going or why you're here, you can start operating in it. And the quickest way to do that is to use the Passion Pentagon with a big notepad and a pen and simply dream big so you can understand where it is you want to go. Why? Because you're worth it. Why not go after it? Why not go after your dreams? Why not go after the profession? Why not go after the passion?
You don't have to live that 85% life. It's okay to be there for a season as you're learning and as you're growing. But you're never going to want to stay there. You're going to want to get up like I do every morning and put my fees, my feet in my shoes, ready to attack the day, ready to go after it. I love getting up early and bringing something home. I hope this video helps you. You if I'll see you in the next one.
Hey, it's Connor with the Journey Principles. If you enjoyed that lesson about the Pentagon of Passion, you can click the link in the description to grab our free ebook where we teach you the five principles you must follow for a personal breakthrough. Also, do us a favor like comment and subscribe and we'll see you on the next video.
