Business is More than Survival

My wife and I recently travelled to New England and spent some time enjoying the early history of our country and my own families ties to that history. 

I have connections to the earliest settlers in Jamestown, to a family on the Mayflower and to many of the patriots who chose to fight for our freedom from England. For me visiting these places and hearing the stories of life in the 16 and 1700’s as the beginnings of America. The energy required for survival did not allow much time for much else.

It is obvious when you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that survival fills the requirements for the lower levels of the hierarchy. The basic physiological needs of shelter and food come first. Well, that requires a lot of energy when there is no market on the corner. 

Immigrants needed to construct homes and then heat those homes and find sources of water and food. This was a challenging time to live and survive. The next level of the hierarchy is safety and it includes the health issues that many immigrants faced in battling early winters and disease not to mention the relationships with the native occupants of the land. 

Life in these times was literally survival. The daily routine was very much focused on survival, keeping the family safe and fed.

I am thankful that I live in a time when shelter and food is pretty stable that I can focus on things further up the scale of Maslow’s hierarchy and be focused on personal growth and my ability to help others get further up the scale towards self actualization.

The ability to have the lower level needs met on a daily basis, my routine can focus on much higher level needs.