Origin, Mission and Vision Alignment
Priestley's stripped-back definition of passion — the thing that goes back to age 10
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
Priestley rejects the cliché of 'follow your passion' as liking snowboarding or enjoying baking, and replaces it with a structural test: is there alignment between your origin story, your mission and your vision? Origin means the theme runs back to age 10 with a trail of little wins along the way. Vision is what you want the world to look like in 10 or 20 years if this goes well and others join in. Mission is the highest-value thing you can do that's in alignment with that vision. When the three line up, you carry yourself differently — you sit differently and speak differently — and talented people quit their jobs to join you. Passion matters not because you ride high on it, but because business has painful valleys and delayed gratification, and alignment is what carries you through them.
Origin
Priestley traces his own thread to a garage sale he ran aged 10 after a house fire — a bad event turned good through business — which set the recurring theme of business as a force for good that every subsequent win has lined up with.
Core principles
- 01Passion is not enjoyment; it's the alignment of origin, mission and vision.
- 02Anything you keep coming back to as a recurring theme is what you're meant to be doing.
- 03Passion is what gets you through the valleys, not what you ride high on.
- 04Misalignment repels talent — and business is a team sport, so it is fatal.
- 05The story should start a long time ago and include little wins along the way.
How to run it
- 1
Write the origin story back to age 10
Trace the theme behind what you're building all the way back to childhood, and identify the little wins along the way that led to this moment.
Pro tip Look for the recurring theme rather than a single dramatic event — recurrence is the signal.
- 2
Describe the 10-20 year vision
Ask what you'd love to be celebrating in 10 or 20 years if this goes well and other people are doing it too.
- 3
Define the mission as the highest-value aligned act
Identify the most high-value thing you could possibly do right now that is in alignment with that vision.
- 4
Test the alignment on other people
Tell the story and watch whether talented people lean in and want to join, or feel repelled.
Pro tip If people hear it and want to leave their job to work on your team, the alignment is real.
Watch out If your only story is 'I heard someone got rich doing this, so I want to get rich', people are repulsed and talent will not come near you.
In the wild
At 10 years old Priestley's family had a house fire — a horrible experience — and he set up a garage sale that made money, turning something bad into something good through business.
→ It became the recurring theme of business as a force for good that every later venture has aligned to.
Someone hears a guy pumped a crypto coin or flipped property into millions, so they decide to do that despite having no interest in, background in, or wins from that field.
→ They're destined to fail because they can't attract a team — people hear it and are actively repulsed.
Common mistakes
Treating passion as a hobby preference
Saying 'I like snowboarding' or 'I enjoy baking a cake' is superficial and gives you nothing to lean on when the business hits its painful valleys.
Chasing money with no personal thread
A vision that's just 'being rich' is of no value to anyone listening — and because business is a team sport, repelling talent is what actually kills the venture.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders choosing between several viable ideas, and anyone who needs to attract co-founders and early team members without money.
Not ideal for
Pure financial operators buying and running businesses they have no personal narrative connection to.
From the transcript
“I look for an alignment between origin, mission, and vision”
“anything that we keep coming back to as a recurring theme is what we're meant to be doing”
“It's not the thing that you ride high on, it's the thing that you get through the hard times with.”
From the episode
The Money Making Expert: The Exact Formula For Turning $100 Into $100k Per Month! 10x Your Income Without Working Harder! The Waiting List Hack That Will Make You Millions!
Daniel Priestley