This is the last post in the series on Maslow's pyramid and how it affects the corporate strategists and entrepreneurs. Maslow's theories are taken again and again under different words in many business books and it always comes down to this conclusion :

Get people (friends, clients, suppliers, investors, family, etc) to the highest plateau of the pyramid and they will thank you. Get yourself to the highest plateau of self-actualization and they will love you and you will love yourself.

Maslow had it. He described self-actualization as
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

So what are the characteristics of these people ? What must an entrepreneur / corporate strategist think about when developing the corporate services they offer ? How can look to help others and myself acquire these characteristics.

The best list I found was in Wikipedia's post on the Hierarchy of Needs. So I am blatantly copying the interesting part of the entry here. I know it's not part of the Blogging Rulebook, but I suspect you won't make the effort to click on the link and find the interesting text.  So here it is (and again, I am ripping this from Wikipedia.)

1. Clearer perception of reality.
Self-actualizing people perceive reality more effectively than others and are more comfortable with it. They have an accurate perception of what exists rather than a distortion of perception by one's needs, and possess an ability to be objective about their own strengths, possibilities and limitations. They judge experiences, people and things correctly and efficiently, and have an unusual ability to detect the spurious, the fake, and the dishonest. They are not afraid of the unknown and can tolerate the doubt, uncertainty, and tentativeness accompanying the perception of the new and unfamiliar.

2. Acceptance of self, others, and nature.
Self-actualizing persons are not ashamed or guilty about their human nature, with its shortcoming, imperfections, frailties, and weaknesses. They can accept their own human shortcomings, without condemnation. Nor are they critical of these aspects of other people. They respect and esteem themselves and others. Moreover, they are honest, open, genuine, without pose or facade. They are not, however, self-satisfied but are concerned about discrepancies between what is and what might be or should be in themselves, others, and society.

3. Spontaneity.
Self-actualizing people are relatively spontaneous in their behavior, and far more spontaneous than that in their inner life, thoughts and impulses. Self-actualizing persons are not hampered by convention, but they do not flout it. They are not conformists, but neither are they anti-conformist for the sake of being so. They might act conventionally, but they seldom allow convention to keep them from doing anything they consider important or basic. They are not externally motivated or even goal-directed; rather their motivation is the internal one of growth and development, the actualization of themselves and their potentialities.

4. Problem-centering.
Self-actualizing people have a problem-solving orientation towards life instead of an orientation centered on self. They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives. They commonly have a mission in life, some problem outside themselves that enlists much of their energies. In general this mission is unselfish and is involved with the philosophical and the ethical.

5. Detachment and the need for solitude.
Self-actualizing people enjoy solitude and privacy. It is often possible for them to remain above the battle, unruffled and undisturbed by that which upsets others. They may even appear to be asocial. It is perhaps, related to an abiding sense of security and self-sufficiency.

6. Autonomy, independent of culture and environment.
 Self-actualizing persons are not dependent for their main satisfactions on other people or culture or means-to-ends, or in general, on extrinsic satisfactions. Rather they are dependent for their own development and continued growth upon their own potentialities and latent resources. The meaning of their life is self-decision, self-governing and being an active, responsible, self-disciplined deciding person rather than a pawn or a person helplessly ruled by others.

7. Continued freshness of appreciation.
Self-actualizing people have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again the basic pleasures of life. They experience awe, pleasure, and wonder in their everyday world, such as nature, children, music and sexual experience. They approach these basic experiences with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.

8. The mystic experience, the oceanic feeling.
Self-actualizing people commonly have mystic or `peak' experiences or times of intense emotions in which they transcend self. During a peak experience, they experience feelings of ecstasy, awe, and wonder with feelings of limitless horizons opening up, feelings of unlimited power and at the same time feelings of being more helpless than ever before. The experience ends with the conviction that something extremely important and valuable has happened so that the person is to some extent transformed and strengthened by the experience that has a carry-over into everyday life.

9. Oneness with humanity.
Self-actualizing people have deep feelings of identification, sympathy and affection for other people, and a deep feeling of empathy and compassion for human beings in general. This feeling is, in a sense, unconditional in that it exists along with the recognition of the existence in others of negative qualities that may provoke occasional anger, impatience, and disgust.

10. Deep interpersonal relations.
Self-actualizing people have deeper and more profound inter-personal relationships than most adults, but not necessarily deeper than children. They are capable of more closeness, greater love, more perfect identification, more erasing of ego boundaries than other people would consider possible. One consequence is that self-actualized people have especially deep ties with rather few individuals and their circle of friends is small. They tend to be kind or at least patient to almost everyone, yet they do speak realistically and harshly of those whom they feel deserve it — especially the hypocritical, pretentious, pompous, or the self-inflated individual.

11. Democratic character structure.
Self-actualizing people are democratic in the deepest possible sense. They are friendly towards everyone regardless of class, education, political beliefs, race, or color. They believe it is possible to learn something from everyone. They are humble in the sense of being aware of how little they know in comparison with what could be known and what is known by others. They are ready and willing to learn from anyone. They respect everyone as a potential contributor to their knowledge, merely because everyone is a human being.

12. Ethical means towards moral ends.
Self-actualizing persons are highly ethical. They clearly distinguish between means and ends and subordinate means to ends. Their notions of right and wrong and of good and evil are often not conventional ones.

13. Philosophical, unhostile sense of humor.
Self-actualizing people have a keen, unhostile sense of humour. They don't laugh at jokes that hurt other people or are aimed at others' inferiority. They can make fun of others in general — or of themselves — especially when they are foolish or try to be big when they are small. They are inclined towards thoughtful humour that elicits a smile, is intrinsic to the situation, and spontaneous.

14. Creativity.
Self-actualizing people are highly imaginative and creative. The creativity involved here is not special-talent creativity. It is a creativity potentially inherent in everyone but usually suffocated by acculturation. It is a fresh, naive, direct way of looking at things, rather similar to the naive and universal creativity of unspoiled children.

Second in a series on the Maslow pyramid (MP), it is now important to focus one of the many consequences of the model on the entrepreneur's life : marketing and commercializing products.

It may seem disconnected at first, but Maslow's pyramid of needs has everything to do with the product you have in your head / are developing / are trying to sell.

Question : Where does your product fit in the pyramid ? What type of need are you addressing ?

The answer to those questions is your first step in determining you infamous 4 Ps in your Marketing plan. It even helps if you are part of those who believe there are really 7 Ps...

Here's how.  Knowing where your product fits will tell you :
- if your product is a commodity product (lower on the MP) or a luxury product (higher on the MP)
- if you're strategy will be one of volume (lower on the MP) or one of being very different and unique (higher on the MP)
- if you can ask for a high price or not (directly proportional to your product's position on the MP)
- who you will position and target your product to (optimal market is the group that find themselves where your product does on the pyramid)
- what the next functionalities of your products should be (do you want to move up, down or stay at your level on the MP?)

I have so many examples of products that prove the model. One that I like talking about is Starbucks coffee. Two generations ago, coffee was unknown on the general consumer market. Brilliantly marketed, coffee companies were able to make this new product a commoditized one. So much so, that not having coffee in the morning is a valid explanation to someone's bad mood or slowness of mind.

What Starbucks then did was very difficult and demanded as much brilliance in their marketing. They decided to bring the product out of the commodity market and bring it higher on the MP. Today, you don't go to Starbucks for the coffee, you go for the experience and the status getting a Starbucks coffee will get you. It is striking in major metropolitan centers to see young professionals line up around the bloc for Starbucks coffee when a neighboring local coffee shop is empty. Holding a Starbucks cup gives you esteem, confidence and a (very false) sense of achievement - everything describing level 4 of the MP.

So figure out where your product stands and where you want to take it. Use the hidden genius of Maslow or someone else will.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow made one of the biggest contributions of the century to the study of human psychology. He created and published what is commonly known as 'The Human Hierarchy of Needs'. This post will explain the hierarchy (heavily citing Wikipedia). The next posts will apply this old-but-still-relevant pyramid to our everyday lives and, especially, to entrepreneurs seeking to develop their products.

I hope, through this series, to demonstrate the hidden genius and the far-reaching consequences of this pyramid in all aspects of our lives.

Maslow postulated that needs are arranged in a hierarchy in terms of their potency. Although all needs are instinctive, some are more powerful than others. The lower the need is in the pyramid, the more powerful it is. The higher the need is in the pyramid, the weaker and more distinctly human it is. The lower, or basic, needs on the pyramid are similar to those possessed by non-human animals, but only humans possess the higher needs.

The base of the pyramid is formed by the physiological needs, including the biological requirements for food, water, air, and sleep. If some needs are not fulfilled, a human's physiological needs take the highest priority. Physiological needs can control thoughts and behaviors, and can cause people to feel sickness, pain, and discomfort.

Once the physiological needs are met, an individual can concentrate on the second level, the need for safety and security. Included here are the needs for structure, order, security, and predictability.

The third level is the need for love and belonging. Included here are the needs for friends and companions, a supportive family, identification with a group, and an intimate relationship. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and depression.

The fourth level is the esteem needs. This group of needs requires both recognition from other people that results in feelings of prestige, acceptance, and status, and self-esteem that results in feelings of adequacy, competence, and confidence. Lack of satisfaction of the esteem needs results in discouragement and feelings of inferiority.

Finally, self-actualization sits at the apex of the original pyramid. More on that last elusive level in the next post.

Over the holidays, I was teasing my 18 year old sister-in-law about how she's not a normal teenager. Think of the stereotypical spoiled 18 year old depicted in the media and Nathalie is her polar opposite.

She responded in her typical nonchalant fashion : 'Me, I'm real'. I initially laughed it off, and then it got me thinking. What is being 'real' ? The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a crucial question entrepreneurs have to answer before they begin to think of of the technology or the product they want to create. My business is the reflection of me - might as well know who that 'me' is...

It goes to the core of my being, my values, my dreams. It's what we call 'integrity'.

So how do we figure out what's important to us ? The answers are wide and varied. So I will propose a series of questions entrepreneurs need to answer in order to figure who their 'real' persona is. It is by no means complete, but it gives you a general portrait. When answering these questions, try being honest, authentic and ... ummm ... don't censor anything ;)

Your values
- Name 3 traits you would like to pass on to your kids
- Complete this sentence : Give me ... or give me death
- Complete this sentence : Life, liberty and the pursuit of ...
- Describe yourself in just one word
- Who do you admire most (living or dead) and why ?
- Your 2 biggest strengths are ...

Your environment
- Name the 2 most important people in your life and one word to describe each person
- Name the 2 qualities you look for in a life partner

Your dreams
- Name the 3 greatest moments of your life
- Name the 3 things you love to do
- Name the 3 things you would like to do before you die
- If you had to start your own country, the slogan would be 'In ... we trust'
- If you had 2 rules you would want the world to follow, they would be ...
- If you could start an organization to solve a world problem, what would the 'world problem' be ?

Your world
- If you could teach 3 things to the world about what EXCITES you about it, what would those 3 things be ?
- If you could change 3 things that ANGER you about the world, what would those 3 things be ?

Finding a good idea : X$
Starting a company and growing it based on this idea : Y $
Making a profit : Z $

Figuring out who you really are : priceless

This blog space is usually reserved for entrepreneurial posts, experiences and knowledge. But today is going to be different. It will be a reflexion on Geddo (grandpa in arab).

Geddo is 92 years young. He's lived 2 World Wars and participated with Egypt in the second one, under the English.  He has intense diabetes, is quite overweight, smoked a good part of his life, had a couple of heart-attacks, through-the-roof cholesterol and a weak liver to boot. Theta (grandma in arab) passed on over 20 years ago, so he moved to Canada from Egypt so that my parents could take care of him. So for over 20 years, he was dependent on others.

In short, he's had every valid reason to NOT be alive today. His body and his heart were broken - and that alone would have done in the best of . But his spirit, ahhh his spirit...

Many clichés could describe his spirit:
- Live and let live
- Don't worry, be happy
- Irie (Jamaican)
- Hakuna Matata (Lion King)
- Ké sera, sera
- Finding the silver lining
- Eh, whatareyagonnadoaboutit
- (insert own phrase here)

He was the epitome of selective worrying. He understood there were things we could do to change the world around us, but that there was much more we couldn't do - so why eat ourselves up over it ? He understood his limitations, accepted them, and made the best of the cards he was dealt. He always had a smile and I think he wasn't apprehensive of passing on.

I am writing this post now (and I have deliberately changed the verb tense in the last paragraph) because last week, his heart-attack put him in the emergency ward at the local hospital. He was barely able to speak and stay awake, yet he would still smile and ask me about my wife and kids. And today, I got a call from my mom that he entered a semi-comatose state. I am unsure if he will be able to hear us or not, but I do know he is at peace. He was content with what he was and what he had during his life, so my biased grandson mind tells me he must be content now.

Maybe this is a post about entrepreneurship after all. Learning to take the events of startup life (and life in general) in stride is an important take away from this man's example. Kinda brings me back to the famous Serenity Prayer (1942) and it's most popular variant:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Update: On Nov 8th 2008, he left us for a better place. He kept going a full 11 months after the posted heart-attack. I am happy to say that, while concious, he kept his positive outlook on life and will forever be an example of finding the silver lining in some very dark clouds.

R.I.P. Geddo. You deserve it.

I often coach entrepreneurs when they start their businesses and, in doing so, get to the core of 'why' they want to go out on their own. I love it when dreams of boatloads of money surface.

And then I ask THE question : 'How much is enough ?' I continue : 'If I give you 1 million dollars right now, would you be happy ?' 'How about 5 million ? 10 million ? (etc)' The conversation quickly turns to how much is needed to live well, what living well means and what the real priorities in life are.

Somewhere during the entrepreneur's soul-searching, I take out a fantastic study that was done many times and taken up by a University of Wisconsin group. There are similar stats on the web, this one comes from the good people at www.100people.org.

Miniature Earth have also made a video with older stats but still very poignant.

It's enough to make the entrepreneur reflect on his true priorities and just how much is really enough.

Important note : I'm certainly not coaching entrepreneurs to NOT make money. I am simply getting them to reflect about their situation on a global scale and realize just how blessed they already are. I also try to bring the entrepreneur to develop other reasons than money to start a business.

IF THE WORLD WERE 100 PEOPLE:
Gender
50 would be female
50 would be male

Age
20 would be 0-14
67 would be 15-64
14 would be 65 and older

Geography
5 would be from North America
9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean
12 would be from Europe
61 would be from Asia
13 would be from Africa

Religion
31 would be Christian
21 would be Muslim
14 would be Hindu
6 would be Buddhist
12 would believe in other religions
16 would not be religious or identify themselves
as being aligned with a particular faith

First Language
17 would speak Chinese
8 would speak Hindustani
8 would speak English
7 would speak Spanish
4 would speak Arabic
4 would speak Russian
3 would speak Bengali
2 would speak Malay-Indonesian
2 would speak French
45 would speak other languages

Overall Literacy
82 would be able to read and write
18 would not

Literacy by Gender
87 males would be able to read and write
13 males would not be able to read and write
77 females would be able to read and write
23 females would not be able to read and write

Education
76 males would have a primary school education
72 females would have a primary school education

66 males would have a secondary school education
63 females would have a secondary school education

1 would have a college education

Urban/Rural
47 would be urban dwellers
53 would be rural dwellers

Drinking Water
83 would have access to safe drinking water
17 would use unimproved water

Food
17 would be undernourished

Infectious Disease
<1% would have HIV/AIDS
<1%would have tuberculosis

Poverty
53 would live on less than 2USD per day
50 would live in poverty

Electricity
69 would have electricity
31 would not

Technology
34 would be cell phone subscribers
17 would own a computer
1 would be be active internet users

I have the joy of teaching a Technology Entrepreneurship class at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal. Picture a class of 50 students who have been trained for 4+ intensive years to think inside the Engineering Box, to memorize what the box holds and to apply standards of the box in their jobs - and you get 50 minds hungry for creativity. My class is usually the last one of their engineering studies so it puts me in a great position to counter-act the brain-washing years they were subjected to. I know... I've been there.

The class is not a hard one. I believe the theoretical principles of entrepreneurship are quite easy. Everything is in
- the discovery of our personal values
- the application of those simple principles
- the determination to keep at it until the company has been built into something of value.

Their task is to come up with an idea, prepare a sensible business plan and, most importantly, present it convincingly to myself and a panel of VCs. They have 12 weeks to do that - and I know most of them wait till the last 2 weeks to really get started.

After almost 4 years of teaching the class, I've come across some surprising ideas and business opportunities which never ceases to give me hope in the fascinating inner-creativity engineers have when given the chance. Here is the list of projects from this year's creative crop.

- An innovative way to present science to primary school kids and elders alike
- A spit-alyser that measures marijuana consumption of drivers
- A Canadian-specific online movie rental and streaming solution
- An advanced, yet simple, pill-reminder and distribution system for elders
- A turnkey system to create an video inventory of your personal assets for insurance purposes
- A wireless SAAS system to collect hard-to-find data from municipal water infrastructures
- An interesting automated wall painting solution
- A unique 'gypse' recycling solution
- A tire-changing machine to avoid the back-related injuries of mechanics
- A power-consumption optimization solution for corporation and consumers
- A head-hunting firm specializing in the placement of semi-retired / retired individuals
- An ad network using LCD screens in public places
- A life-brokering solution for elders at home to increase their at-home  quality of life
- An innovation-based network for corporations and individuals to promote sharing and learning
- A process-optimizing solution for corporations
- An in-grocery store and web solution to quickly enter the basket, see the specials and map out the optimal route to fill the said basket

I get at least 2 groups a year that actually start a business project and take the next post-academic step into the world of entrepreneurship... and it makes me so proud. I end up coaching these teams in their growth to profitability and when it happens, I get that paternal 'snif-snif-my-kids-are-all-grown-up' feeling.

Feeling lonely at the top is a natural by-product of being an entrepreneur. There are so many issues to deal with on a daily basis and a dozen different actors to satisfy, all at the same time. The need, therefore, for like-minded individuals and confidential sounding boards becomes imminent.

EO - Entrepreneurs' Organization - is a 7000+ member network of, well, entrepreneurs in all industries, shapes and sizes. It's based on the principles of confidentiality, experience-sharing (Gestalt protocol), networking and trust. Every month, I meet with my forum - which I've had for over 6 years now - to talk about issues and candidly share. There are once-in-a-lifetime local and international learning / networking events as unique benefits that leverage the huge network. EO is also a sister company to YPO (Young Presidents Organization) - which increases the network effect to 25 000+ members!

Here is the video-reporting from CNBC about this wonderful organization. A good succinct 2 minutes on the principles talked about above.

The official web site is here and the youtube channel is here.

If you're an entrepreneur and you're lonely...  there's help ;)

There is a story I often use to talk about true commitment.

'A chicken and a pig were walking down the street one day and noticed some poor children who looked as if they hadn't eaten anything for days. Moved with compassion, the chicken said to the pig, 'I have an idea! Let's give those children a nice breakfast of of ham and eggs.' The pig contemplated the chicken's suggestion and said, 'Well, for you, that would involve a small sacrifice : but for me, it would be a total commitment!'

I love it. Total commitment. This notion permeates everything I do. As an entrepreneur, am I totally committed to the satisfaction of all the actors involved around me ? As a father and husband, does my family see me enough to say that I'm committed to them ? Does my social involvement limit itself to donating money or do I also give my time, my knowledge, my experiences and my feelings ? Do I just pay lip service to my values, or am I willing to die for them ?

I don't want to be a chicken who just lays the eggs and then leaves.... I want to be a pig who gives himself to the cause.

I often ask the question to my university students : "'Why do you want to be entrepreneurs, to start your business ?"

We then go through the usual more money, more power, more glory and more pleasure arguments. And then, inevitably, one student says : "I want to be my own boss".

I love that answer, mostly because I get to burst a well known bubble.

The entrepreneur is not his own boss. At least not in the sense the students usually means it. We have to be able to manage a dozen different relationships at one time and make sure EVERY single one is a happy one. It is an absolute necessity for the entrepreneur to maintain healthy ties to the actors in his environment. Failure to do so results in ... well... corporate failure.

Here are the actors in the entrepreneur's world that are actually his collective bosses :
- Suppliers
- Clients
- Associates
- Employees
- Bankers
- Investors
- Shareholders / Stakeholders
- Boards
- Unions
- Business partners
- Government
- and most importantly, the family.

That sound you hear is from entrepreneurs-to-be's bubble bursting.