Sorry Maslow, but creatives have a different hierarchy of needs

Maslow is SO last year, darling.

I say that with respect for a man who fundamentally changed how we think about human motivation. But Abraham Maslow built his famous pyramid in 1943, essentially from his own observations, with no large-scale research behind it and no creative business owner in the room.

Modern psychology has since questioned whether there is sufficient evidence to support the strict ordering of needs at all, and one of the biggest criticisms is this: human behaviour is too complex, and too personal, to squeeze into five neat sequential boxes.

For a graphic designer juggling three client briefs, a solopreneur trying to remember why they left their nine-to-five (because the freedom they promised themselves hasn't appeared), or an agency owner who hasn't taken a proper holiday in two years, the original pyramid feels like it was built for someone else entirely.

So, I'm proposing a different one.

When the plates are spinning, something has to give

The creative professionals I work with are rarely short of talent, ideas, or ambition. What they are short of is perspective. Perspective which comes from a step back, a pause and a sense check of why they started this in the first place.

The observable problem is the gap between what they are doing and what they are doing it for.

They're running fast, filling their diaries, delivering for clients, keeping the lights on. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, the things they actually started the business for (time, freedom, creativity, joy, presence with the people they love) have moved to the bottom of the to-do list.

Maslow's hierarchy puts survival at the bottom and self-actualisation at the top, with the assumption that you work your way up sequentially. For a creative business owner, that framing can be dangerous.

It implies that fulfilment is the reward for getting everything else right first. Something to earn eventually, once the business is stable, the clients are happy, and the invoices are paid. That 'eventually' can create a destination addiction that Maslow almost definitely never considered.

Here's my alternative.

The Creative's Hierarchy of Needs

Five tiers, built specifically for people who are building something of their own.

Getting paid

The obvious foundation. Without financial viability, you don't have a viable business. But for most creative professionals money isn't the destination. It is the facilitator.

More crucially (to those who are emotionally invested in their work at least), getting paid is the first piece of evidence that 'what you do' works. That it has value. That someone is willing to exchange real money for what lives inside your head.

Don't underestimate that. Every invoice paid is a small but significant act of validation.

Client transformation

Beyond the bank balance, the positive difference you make to your clients' worlds is, almost certainly, a bigger measure of success for creative business owners than the money itself.

Testimonials, repeat business, referrals are good for your confidence. They build the body of evidence that proves, on the days when the Mind Monkeys are loudest, that you are genuinely good at this.

Adventure

The money and the feedback give you something even more valuable: permission.

Permission to stretch, to experiment, to take the work somewhere new. And beyond the business itself, they give you the platform to start designing a life that actually looks the way you want it to look. To ask not just what you're building, but where you want to be while you're building it.

Presence

There is no point being with the people you love if you are not actually 'being' with the people you love (see what I did there?).

This tier is about the quality of the time you are reclaiming, not just the quantity. Laptop closed. Phone down. Genuinely in the room. Presence is not a luxury reserved for people who have everything sorted. It is a practice, and a choice; available in any tier of the pyramid if you decide to make it one.

Happiness

Joy, contentment, fulfilment... Choose your own word (because it's your 'better story' that you are writing). The point is that happiness sits at the top of this hierarchy not because it comes last (again, it's not a destination), but because it is the answer to the two questions I ask every client at the start of our work together:

What is it you really want? And why is that so important to you that you are prepared to embrace fear and take the brave and brilliant action required to make it happen?

Happiness is the 'better story'. It is the sum of every small victory from the tiers below and enjoyed in all those tiers; consciously and unapologetically.

The hierarchy isn't a ladder

By the way, you don't have to work meticulously from the bottom to the top. You don't have to wait until your business is perfect, the pipeline is full, the to-do list is finally ticked off (it won't be. That is not how to-do lists work), or the bank balance is better than it has ever been.

What the 'Creative's Hierarchy of Needs' offers is a way of looking at your working week and asking: "Which tier am I actually spending my time in right now? Which tier am I building towards? And what does the top tier look like for me (the 'what you want' and 'why you want it')?"

By the way, if the answer to both questions is "getting paid, and making money," that is absolutely fab. Again... it's your story.

The reason why I encourage you to find your answer to those questions is that the plates will keep spinning. The hierarchy double-checks whether you are spinning them in the direction of the business/life you actually want.

Mark Franklin is The Four Fears® Guy: a transformational mindset coach, speaker and author working with creative professionals and small business owners who are ready to close the gap between the business they have and the one they actually deserve.

Which tier of the Creative's Hierarchy of Needs feels most out of reach for you right now? Drop it in the comments. You might find you're not the only one.