Importance of Entrepreneurship through Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs Theory

Written by:Dr. Sonia Selwin

Published on:Feb. 22, 2022

The business world may seem like a smooth path with strings of ‘success’ and prosperous happy entrepreneurs. But the question is, what is the reality behind the scenes? Of course, staying within one’s own bubble and following stringent rules does not always make a business successful. As with most concepts, every person has a different view about entrepreneurship based on their previous experience or what they have heard about entrepreneurship. And different views and opinions are good so that we can discuss and share our knowledge. The term Entrepreneurship is a fancy term coined to describe ‘starting a business.’ Entrepreneurship attracts people who are willing to take a risk, who are having unique minds and strong decision-making power apart from the other entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurs are the people who start their businesses, and doubtlessly are an asset to any country as it accelerates economic wealth and acts as a driving force to change in any society. Moreover, entrepreneurs also create wealth in society and help promote well-being.

Interestingly, I always love to learn about the success stories of different people. Undoubtedly, their stories made me ponder over my own story of how I became an entrepreneur! We faced difficult times during college as my mother was the only breadwinner at home. I even remember the days when we only had rice at home and so we plucked moringa leaves (also known as drumstick leaves) which grew in front of our house for a week till we received our mom’s salary. My personal experience with entrepreneurship started when I was pursuing my undergraduate in Business Administration although I was not familiar with the term “entrepreneur”. My very close friend Hilda told me that she found an area where they sold sarees (Indian women's clothing) wholesale and asked me if I was interested to start a saree business. I discussed this with my mom and told her that maybe this might help us pay my college tuition. She agreed and we started the saree business. Our first customers were the teachers in the school who were willing to buy from us as we provided an option of paying in installments. Although we faced several challenges like nonpayment of monthly installments and unsold sarees, interestingly, it kept us busy and gave us a sense of accomplishment.

Now, let’s dive into the importance of entrepreneurship.

Although the importance of entrepreneurship can be viewed from different angles, today, you will gain a short glimpse into my reflections on my life as an entrepreneur. Personally, when I think about the importance of entrepreneurship, the first point that comes to my mind is economic freedom, followed by everything the income generated from entrepreneurship can give: for example, food, education, shelter, and the like. I also realized that by the end of the day, I felt that I achieved something big. In reading this list, it struck me: these elements describe the needs mentioned in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and I came to the realization that entrepreneurship in essence fulfills all the needs mentioned by Maslow. I was thrilled with this discovery, and here is how I further reflected on my experiences in association with the theory.

Entrepreneurship helps fulfill Basic Needs

I was studying in the college while my brother was in medical college and finance was always tight as my mother was paid very less. Thankfully, we never really realized the pinch because of the saree business. It provided enough money to provide us food, warmth, education and a content rest. Probably if we didn’t have sufficient income for our daily livelihood, we wouldn’t have been able to rest peacefully. Hence by God’s grace, we were able to fulfill our basic needs through our entrepreneurial initiative.

Entrepreneurship paved way to fulfill Psychological Needs

We were able to rent a good house in Madurai (a small city in India) and live in a safe environment because of the financial support from the business. It also gave us an opportunity to socialize with more people and we gained several acquaintances with whom we wouldn’t have even spoken if not for the saree business. The surprising part was that there were several people who borrowed from us as we had a constant flow of liquid cash. Hence, we had the privilege to help many who needed our help. Looking back into those days, I feel that we are now blessed beyond measures for the little things we did for others and that wouldn’t have been made possible if we didn’t start the saree business. We were respected in the place we lived because we always had some money in hand. I understood that although we didn’t have much, God blessed us in what we did and that gave a different perspective of me and my mom. Instead of asking others for help, being self-sufficient made a huge difference in our lives.

Entrepreneurship helped us gain Self-fulfillment

The feeling of self-actualization was always present as I was more busy when compared to my other friends. Undoubtedly, my experience helped me gain better understanding of the concepts I was studying both in Bachelors in Business Administration and when I continued to pursue my MBA, I felt a great sense of achievement every time we were able to sell all the sarees without returning those that were not purchased. In conclusion, I have noticed that business studies usually are involved in a project in their final semester where they observe or conduct a small research project. The students pursuing their business studies are not involved in practically doing a business nor learning from their experiences. My entrepreneurial experience gave me tremendous leverage to my education in business and I have realized that students who study business must be motivated to be involved in entrepreneurship. When students who pursue their business studies are not required to start their own business or observe the business, it would greatly handicap them to understand the concepts and to venture into the job market. Entrepreneurial exposure holds good also for students in any STEAM courses who are involved in several innovative projects. Entrepreneurial training program will give a direction and a vision to start their own business by commercializing the services or products derived from their creative minds. Keeping this issue in mind, I had always dreamt for students in all fields to be involved in entrepreneurial training programs. Our nonprofit, People Empowerment Alliance for Creativity and Education (PEACE) focuses on creating awareness among students on the benefits of starting their own business and also train students to help aspiring entrepreneurs in the community.