It is quite true that man lives by bread alone--when there is no bread. But what happens to man's desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled?
- Abraham Maslow
In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow attempted to explain the pattern of motivations that humans generally move through. Human motivation, according to his theory, is based on a hierarchy of five needs: (1) physiological, (2) safety, (3) belongingness/love, (4) esteem, and (5) self-actualization. Maslow's Hierarchy, as it came to be known, has for decades been a mainstay in textbooks, journals, articles, and pop culture, and has remained one of the most enduring and popular constructs to explain the patterns of human behavior. Anyone who has heard of it can imagine its most popular visual representation: a pyramid (although Maslow himself never presented his steps with any imagery), with the final step of self-actualization, or the fulfillment of one's personal potential, as the highest of human motivations.
But what not many people know is that in the late 1960s, after having done more research on human behavior, Maslow amended his model, and the conventional description of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is actually a highly inaccurate as a description of his later thought.
The implications of this change must not be underestimated. The earlier, well-known model says that at the highest level, the individual ultimately works towards self-actualization, i.e. to fulfill his or her own potential. That puts human beings in a highly self-aggrandizing light.
So what was the big change? In Maslow's new model, self-transcendence, in which individuals seek a benefit beyond the purely personal, was the final step, beyond self-actualization. At the level of self-transcendence, the individual's own needs are put aside, to a great extent, in favor of service to others.
Unfortunately, Maslow found very little opportunity to publicize his amended theory. In 1968, he was hospitalized in intensive care following a heart attack. He never quite recovered, and died two years later. But as he put it in his unpublished October 1966 paper, "the good of other people must be invoked."
Indeed for the few of us who reach the peak of material success, the novelty of money wears off and they realize that they want something else out of life--just as Mo Ibrahim discovered shortly after he sold his telecommunications company, Celtel International, for $3.4 billion.
"In the beginning, business is about building something and making money, but after a while becomes more of an ego trip," he says. "Is it wonderful? Will you be very happy? I mean, you will not eat better, you will not dress better, you will not have a better car. What are you going to do? There comes a time when you think, Okay, I am secure. My children are fine. I have achieved what I want in business. Then the diminishing law starts to apply. It becomes even meaningless. Meaningless."
And so once he cashed in in 2005, the golf-loving Mo did not just go to a beautiful island to enjoy the sunsets and play golf. "For me that's not a satisfactory way of life. Yes, playing golf is nice, and beaches are beautiful. But I find none of that fulfilling." Instead, he turned to philanthropy to achieve man's greatest need: self-transendence.
For more on Mo Ibrahim's story, as well as dozens of others who have found purpose, joy, healing and love through giving, read "The Giving Way to Happiness: Stories & Science Behind the Life-Changing Power of Giving," by Jenny Santi. Tarcher Penguin Random House, 2016