i’m just hypothesising.. but the way to keep success out of the equation is to think we already have success, which is having good confidence in us and in our current state… and not thinking achieving sth only would give us success and satisfaction.. the other way is dont think of success altogether, i mean like wat krishna says in bhagawathgeetha.. “karmane waadhi ka raste, maa phaleshu kadachina” .. we just love wat we do, not look for success.. but yeah i know these are pretty easy to say in theory, to achieve them in practice is altogether a more difficult thing… but yeah, i just put my point fwd..

nice article but……….The Myths of Maslow’s Law
It is a fact that there is no scientific evidence of the Maslow’s Law of hierarchy. If this theory is true than no human being can ever reach to their final fulfillment of their needs i.e. “Self-Actualization Needs” as one can never satisfy the first four lower needs ever in his life. In fact, most people fail to satisfy even their first need itself as their desire for food, drink; housing and sex can are not satiable even if they become the richest and also the most powerful person of the world. The security needs are such that no individual can ever satisfy it as protection, law and order and safety often depends on the attitude of other members of the society and there is no known State or Nation which has ever been able to satisfy the security need of its citizen.

It is a also a fact that the people, who had been hailed as genius or creative as they reached the stage of self-actualization, did not satisfy their love and belonging needs or the self-esteem needs before the desire of self-actualized was born in their minds. As a matter of fact, all self-actualized people never had even one of their needs satisfied when they actually started working to satisfy their self-actualization need.

Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the modern time, was just 25 years when he wrote four papers in 1905, which were all so brilliant that the scientists believe that each one could have fetched him a Nobel Prize. He was then working as a grade III clerk in Swiss Patent Office. His was staying in a one room apartment and his salary was so meager that he could barely survive. His love life was in shambles and his relationship with his wife Mileva Maric was never smooth. Yet he wrote four of his greatest paper in these “difficult” times which included the paper of relativity that made him world famous and the paper of photoelectric effect which fetched the Nobel Prize.

Einstein was not an exception but it has been almost a rule in the world that only those people attained the state of self-actualization who made this as their first need and not the last. The discovery of the inner self, which leads to self-actualization, must not be the last step but the first step for the man. Those who tried to attain this stage after satisfying all previous lower needs, in fact never reached to this state at all.

His contemporary, M K Gandhi, too started his first movement of nonviolence and civil disobedience when he was barely 24 years old. At that time, he had no regular income but he had to take care of his wife and four children.

Mr Amitabh Bachhan, who is hailed as the greatest film stars of Hindi Cinema gave up the job as freight broker for the shipping firm, “Bird and Co.” to pursue a career in acting when he was barely 25 years old and he had nothing. Had he thought of taking up his acting career after, he had satisfied all his lower needs, he would have never been known to the world as a great actor.

Paulo Cohelho started his writing career at an early age and wrote his classic “The Alchemist” when he was unknown and poor. The same magic could not be created once he became world famous.

As a matter of fact, all great leaders, philosophers, poets, musicians artists never tried to satisfy their basic needs before staring their journey on their path of self-actualization. Whether, it is the leaders like Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Gandhi or the artists, philosophers and poets like Ghalib, Kabir, Tulsidas, S D Burman, Lata Mangeshkar or entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani ; they all discarded the traditional path of the fulfillment of lower needs in the beginning of their life and followed the path shown by their heart in the pursuit of self-actualization.

As a matter of fact, the converse of Maslow’s law seems to be true in real life. All great leaders and artists are known to fall after they have acquired wealth, power, love and respect from the society. Great leaders like Mao, Stalin and Fidel Castro are well known to have become slave of their senses after all their needs got satisfied. Albert Einstein could never write the quality of paper later in his life after he got everything in his life, though he lived over 75 years and wrote more than 300 papers after 1905.

Start with Self-Actualization
It is to be understood that the happiness of the man comes only when he does the things which he loves. However, few people have the time and the courage to look within them and discover their true “self”. They prefer to walk on the safe paths that are followed by most other people. They spend their life satisfying their physical and emotional needs and never get time to attain self-actualization as the lower needs are never satisfied. The right approach, therefore, is to identify the self when the mind of the person is pure and his vision is not blurred from the mud of the worldly pursuits. Those who follow the myth of Maslow’s Hierarchy need remains frustrated throughout their lives since all their needs remains unsatisfied. As self-actualization is the final goal of the life of every person, it is better to start working on it at the earliest.

Hi,
good to see your POV. I am also on the same view that success should be kept out of the equation.
But how do we in reality put away satisfaction ? Does that work ? Theoretically it is perfect to have it out, but is this ‘funda’ possible ?

A dialogue from a movie.. icing on d cake..

A: Where are you?
B: Here.
A: What time is it?
B: Now.
A: What are you?
B: This moment.