The essence of Maslow´s Hierarchy is the notion of “pre-potency”, where people will not be motivated by any higher-level needs until the lower-level ones have been satisfied. Maslow’s hierarchy makes sense in general terms — if I am pre-occupied with physical needs, I am usually not going to be interested in self-esteem needs, for example — however, there are many occasions when this hierarchy does not apply. It is also excessively individualistic, and does not allow for altruism. Although most of Motivation and Personality is about defining “self-actualization”, Maslow never really succeeds in doing it. It is a model where there is actually less to it than meets the eye!