Business as Self-Actualization: Limitations force creative solutions
- Flore Thevoux
- Jun 3
- 3 min read
The measure of our growth is directly proportionate to the parameters we choose to either accept or challenge.
This is especially true in gardening. Keep the pot small, and the plant will remain a certain size.
If you own potted plants, you know this is not a forever solution. Similarly, as humans we suffer when we resist the discomfort of finding a larger container and fresher soil to support who we’re becoming.
I first encountered the concept of self-actualization in my early twenties, while wandering the grimy streets of Brooklyn as an art student. My school psychologist pointed me toward the work of Carl Jung, whose collected works cracked open a lifelong fascination with the human psyche.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, self-actualization is “the process by which an individual reaches his or her full potential”. As conceived by its originator Kurt Goldstein, a German physician specializing in neuroanatomy and psychiatry in the early half of the 20th century, it’s the ultimate goal of all organisms.
American psychologist Abraham Maslow, famous for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (which has since been challenged by many contemporary psychologists), popularized the term in a more limited sense, believing it only referred to human beings.
The alchemical properties of responsibility
Business is a mechanism for testing, integrating, and expressing our values, beliefs, and identities. Entrepreneurship — or any role that demands significant responsibility — is a modern path to self-actualization.
Never in my life have my routines, self-concept, and general confidence in my abilities been tested to this degree. As a business-owner, whatever happens in my business (or doesn’t happen) is on me. There’s nowhere left to hide. No boss to blame, no toxic partner to fixate on, no unhealed childhood wound that distorts my behavior.
All I'm left with is the cold, clean weight of accountability.
Over the past three years (when my design career really started taking off), I’ve seen impressive positive shifts in:
My health
How I feed myself
My movement habits
How I sleep
My relationships
With myself
With my parents
With those I choose to trust
Resource management
Time, energy, money
My thinking
Sharper, faster, deeper, more refined (this might just be my maturing mind)
These changes haven’t come without a cost. When we’ve been in the same pot for too long, our roots become tightly knotted and interwoven. As I’ve widened my container, I’ve unearthed many shadows — primal fears, ancestral wounds, insecurities and worries I had carried since childhood. As my roots unwind, I continue to encounter difficult moments of confrontation with who I was, where I come from, and where I wish to be.
It has taken me every ounce of my strength and will to believe there is a light at the end of this process.
Struggles shape our growth
These are some common shadows people face on their path to professional growth:
Imposter syndrome. The only real way to get over this is to surround yourself with enough external proof that doubting your own capacities feels delusional.
The fear of being seen. Visibility is terrifying. To overcome it, letting go is your best friend. Repeatedly release projections, expectations, and people-pleasing. Be yourself, stay in your lane, reach your goals, and let others take note.
Control. Let go of the need to control every outcome. It’s literally impossible to and not at all how life works.
With time, these patterns soften. But they return in new forms, cycling through fresh contexts to show you what’s still left to integrate.
The golden carrot
The most powerful driver of my growth is the chance to live a better, healthier, fuller life. If I didn’t see a sliver of that opportunity, I wouldn’t be here, speaking to you now. The changes I’m putting myself through would not be worth it. It would be so much easier to focus on external distractions than to face my own character. That’s what most people do anyways.
So much of what we think we need is unnecessary. Limitations force creative solutions. When you're working with less, you become a pressure cooker for possibility.
The greatest gift of free will is that you get to define what self-actualization looks like. Business, when done with integrity, is just one path that can take you there.
Capitalism can either sharpen you or swallow you whole. Your choice in how you wish to approach that beast.
I’ll leave you with this:
How will you let your circumstances shape you… and how will you shape your circumstances? ✸
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