The Life Of Stephen Scoggins Before Success

Stephen Scoggins, founder of The Journey Principles Institute is an entrepreneur that has paved a path for long term success in his countless endeavors within the business world. Encountering unique adversities from a young age led him to muster the courage to build a diligent work ethic that would guide him in all areas of his life. Stephen is a best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur of multiple businesses with multi-8-figure revenues, a motivational speaker, and the creator of the proprietary Life-Mastery Framework affectionately named, “Transform U.”

BackGround Story

“In truth, life has always been a bit of an uphill battle for me. I grew up in a divorced family for the first few years of my life. Then, my grandmother, who I call Nanny, raised me. My brief moment with her became the core part of my life, and it’s where I truly felt loved and appreciated. Unfortunately, I was only about 9 years old when my Nanny was diagnosed with cancer, and trusted me to put someone else’s needs before my own.

I was so small I often had to pull a stool up to the stove and sink to make our dinner and breakfast. Chemo stole so much of her energy — she simply did not have the strength. For years after that, I struggled to break the cycle, always putting everyone else before myself. This always left me unseen, unheard, and unvalued.

Soon after, my Nanny passed away leaving my brother and I in need of our parents. I was introduced to the construction industry when I moved in with my father — and I said goodbye to my little brother who was off to Florida with my mother.

And so it began. I worked every weekend, holiday, and summer in the construction trade, carrying lumber and learning the trades altogether. My dad’s business did well for a while and things seemed like they were starting to stabilize — and I would be able to go back and be a kid again. That was until the business began to fail.

We went down the roller coaster of watching foreclosures, repossession, and later a bankruptcy. I bounced around for a long while with my dad moving from broken down mobile home to broken down mobile home. I watched him fight back with all he had only to let poor life skills steal every bit of traction he would make.

By the time I was at the end of my junior year of high school, I had enough and dropped out of school. I wanted to help provide for the family — hoping and praying to get us over the hump. It worked for a while and things got a little better. That is until another set of events would lead me towards homelessness and a complete loss of hope. Fortunately for me, two people changed my life forever and helped me become the man I am today, and all of the benefits that come with it.

My greatest inspiration outside of my Nanny came down to two people: Steve Myrick, a local home builder, and Susan Batts, who I referred to as Mamawama. Susan took me in as her own on multiple occasions, and was a former high school girlfriend’s mother. Both encouraged me and taught me different things that radically changed the trajectory of my life.”