A motivational talk by Stephen Scoggins (founder/CEO of the Journey Principles Institute) about overcoming adversity and becoming "the hero of your own journey." He recounts mentorship from Steve Myrick, personal hardships (dropping out of high school, pawning possessions), a near-suicidal moment in 1998, and a formative principle taught by his mentor summarized as G.R.O.W.: Gain perspective, Recognize roadblocks, Organize a plan, Work the plan.
Chapters
Foreign.
Please join me in welcoming Steven Scoggins to the Sting.
How are you guys doing? Yeah, this has been a great event so far, hasn't it? I tell you what, man, I've been really enjoying it. Love hanging out with you guys. It's been fantastic. I am Steven Scoggins. I am the founder and CEO of the Journey Principles Institute, an organization dedicated to the relentless pursuit of helping others become the hero of their own journey. But if you're honest with yourself, what does that really mean? What does being the hero of your own journey really mean? And if you took it a step further, why is it that some people struggle, never find breakthrough, but yet other people struggle, have adversity, setback after setback, stumbling block after stumbling block, but yet finding hope, transformation, potential. They find themselves. They find something greater within. What does that have to do with anything? How do we get there? The first time I ever heard anyone ever use the words be the hero of your own journey or anything remotely close to that was by a man in his 70s. He smelled like Stetson cologne, for those of you who remember what Stetson smelled like. He was short like me, a little bit. And he kind of waddled when he walked. He had, like, an interesting little hip thing going on. And I'll never forget this man because he's my father's employer. His name was Steve Myrick. From this area here. Born and raised in Raleigh, N.C. built a home building business, large business, for a long time. Had this immaculate sense for entrepreneurship. Immaculate sense for business, but a quiet sense for helping others. And what I don't understand or what I ever could understand is why he chose me.
He chose to pull me down off my dad's framing cruise, and he would sit me down in his white Jeep Grand Cherokee with his gray bottom with a big old dent in the bumper, because he was forever backing into stuff. Partially because he wore this neck brace and he couldn't turn his head.
And he would sit me down and he would say, stephen, I want you to know something. Both your grandfather and your father could have been millionaires. They could have traveled the world, they could have done lots of great things, but they never could overcome their roadblocks. I thought to myself, roadblocks? What do you mean, roadblocks? And the more I thought about it, the more I really kind of searched myself. The more I wanted what Steve had, The more I wanted to get out of the situation, the life and adversity that I was already in. But before I could do that, things changed. I got slapped with More adversity. I had to drop out of high school at the age of 17 or help my family pay their bills. I even remember this one time walking in with one of my parents up in Sanford, North Carolina and having to pawn my brand new Nintendo that I had just gotten for Christmas to keep the lights on.
And it seemed like the harder that I tried to move forward, the harder and the deeper that I dug, the more difficult things got, the more adversity shaped, the more things got in my way.
So much so that in 1998, at my weakest moment, after listening to years of yelling failure on my left shoulder.
But ignoring whispers of opportunity on my right one.
I found myself overlooking Capitol Boulevard. And for those of you who are from this area, you guys will know where Capitol is. It overlooks an eight lane highway below.
I was ready to end that voice of failure once and for all.
But suddenly I was taken all the way back to Steve's Jeep.
I don't know why, but in that quiet moment, that whisper of opportunity came back into my heart out of nowhere.
Are there whispers of opportunity still in your heart? Are there things that you haven't done, achieved, or wanted to do that you haven't done yet?
I'll tell you this much. Steve spent a lot of time helping me understand one simple principle. He. He said, you already have inside of you everything you need to succeed. Everything you need to break free from everything that you need. You simply need to do a few things. And the way he said it was, he pulled his finger up and he pointed on his dashboard a sticky note. And this is what it said. He said, stephen, you first need to g R O W grow, guys. Steve, Mark. Gain perspective.
Recognize your roadblocks, organize your plan, and then work your plan.
Steve Meyer radically altered the course of my life. He taught me that fear and failure only have the power that you actually give it. Only have it. So every journey has a principle. Every principle has a promise. If you will live the principles, you will also with the promises. Thank you very much.
