[MaxWendkos]

Steve, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to read the post, but am sorry that you felt it was terrible. Hopefully I can help to ease some of your concerns.

Although Maslow's assertion that humans progressively strive to fulfill needs was not relevant to the point I was making, that's just one part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. His classification of the needs into categories was still very relevant, as it served as the backbone of my argument re: how need fulfillment in the startup community differs from mainstream need fulfillment.

As for the perceived bragging, I did not intend it to be so and am sorry that I came across that way to you. My goal here was to briefly tie in the experiences from my life that had triggered my awareness of my own potential so that readers would be able to identify experiences in their own lives that had played a similar role. If you have any suggestions for how I could have conveyed my experiences without coming across as "bragging," I would be happy to hear them and to take them into future consideration.