Becoming is the quiet engine that moves every person and every company. It begins as tension: “What I am now” pulls against “what I could be.” When that tension is acknowledged and addressed, growth begins.

But this tension is more than discomfort. It’s the fundamental force that drives all meaningful transformation. In individuals, it manifests as restlessness. In companies, it appears as strategic drift, the widening gap between current capabilities and market evolution.

The Psychology of Organizational Becoming

Abraham Maslow referred to this as “self-actualization.” He noticed that once food, safety, and belonging are steady, a different impulse wakes up. It is not hunger for more stuff; it is hunger for fuller expression. It asks, “What latent capacity still sleeps in me?”

But Maslow’s insight went deeper. He observed that self-actualization operates through what he called “peak experiences,” moments of clarity where individuals glimpse their potential wholeness. For companies, these peak experiences are strategic inflection points: the moment Netflix recognized that streaming would replace DVDs, when Apple realized the phone could become a computer, and when Amazon understood that web services could be its true calling.

Maslow later realized that this impulse continues unfolding until it extends beyond the self toward service — a form of self-transcendence. So the journey is circular: grow the self so you can forget the self. For companies, this means evolving from self-focused survival to market-shaping leadership to ecosystem orchestration.

The Mechanics of Transformation

Sound abstract? It shows up in daily micro-choices. Pass on a safe project to attempt the unproven. Speak the half-formed idea in the meeting. Say no to the promotion that drifts from your deeper work. Each move is a vote for the person you intend to become.

In organizational terms, these micro-choices compound:

• Killing a profitable product line that no longer serves the vision
• Hiring someone whose skills you’ll need in three years, not today
• Investing in capabilities the market doesn’t yet value
• Saying no to customers who pull you backward

Each decision creates what physicist Murray Gell-Mann called “frozen accidents,” choices that lock in a particular evolutionary path while closing others.

The Three Belief Gates

But intention collides with belief. We all carry three belief clusters that act as gates to transformation:

1. Vehicle Beliefs: “Will this method work?”

This is skepticism about the path itself. For individuals: “Can this course really teach me what I need?” For companies: “Will this strategic pivot actually capture value?”

Vehicle beliefs may seem rational on the surface, but they often mask deeper fears. A company questioning whether category creation “works” might really be questioning whether they have the courage to educate a market.

2. Internal Beliefs: “Can I pull it off?”

This cuts deeper. It’s about capability and worthiness. Individuals ask: “Am I smart/talented/connected enough?” Companies ask: “Do we have the resources/talent/culture to execute?”

These beliefs often become self-fulfilling. Henry Ford’s observation applies: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Companies that believe they can transform find ways; those that don’t find excuses.

3. External Beliefs: “Will my context allow it?”

The deepest beliefs concern environmental possibility. “Will the market accept this?” “Will stakeholders support the journey?” “Is the timing right?”

Russell Brunson (ClickFunnels fame) studies these beliefs because they block purchases. Remove the block and sales rise. Humanistic psychology studies the same beliefs because they block growth. Remove the block and potential rises. Different arenas, same mechanism: belief frames action.

Positioning as Corporate Individuation

That link matters for positioning. Positioning is a company’s public act of becoming. But unlike individual becoming, which can be private, corporate becoming must be performed in the marketplace, making it both more challenging and more powerful.

Early-stage firms sit in deficiency needs: keep the lights on, win any revenue. This is Maslow’s physiological and safety levels, which are characterized by pure survival. Many companies never leave this state, trapped in what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a “fixed mindset” about their identity.

Mature firms that chase category leadership must shift into growth needs: reveal purpose, codify narrative, shape market beliefs. This requires what Carl Jung termed “individuation,” becoming what you uniquely are, not what others expect.

A company that outgrows its old story but fails to replace it stalls, the same way a person who buries a creative impulse feels stuck. The psychological parallel is precise: both experience what existentialist psychologist Rollo May called “the courage to create” or its absence.

The Architecture of Corporate Becoming

Look at Patagonia. Its first stories were about kit that survives climbs. Over decades the narrative morphed: from durability to “responsible business” to “planet caretaker.” Each transformation required shedding an old identity:

1. Durability Era: “We make things that last”
2. Quality + Ethics: “We make things right”
3. Environmental Leadership: “We save our home planet”
4. Post-Growth Activism: “We’re here to save Earth, not sell jackets”

Not rebranding but re-becoming. Each leap demanded new beliefs from customers (“An apparel label can double as activism”), employees (accepting lower growth for higher purpose), and even supply-chain partners (adopting regenerative practices).

The firm sold product, yes, but first it sold an expanded identity: “wearing us equals stewardship.” The category transcended to a higher plane, and rivals chasing price or fashion were left yelling into a different room.

Another frame: Lego. In the 1990s, it almost bankrupted itself by chasing licensing trends, a classic improvement trap. The turnaround happened when leadership returned to the noun “imagination.” But the real transformation came from understanding what imagination meant:

• Not “creative toys” but “systematic creativity”
• Not “building blocks” but “learning through making”
• Not “play” but “serious play”

Lego is not toys; Lego is a medium for structured creativity. That belief aligned product, theme parks, movies, education kits, even architecture software. Revenue followed identity, not the other way around.

The Paradox of Planned Becoming

Here’s the challenge: authentic becoming can’t be manufactured, but it can be cultivated. It’s like the Zen teaching: “You are perfect as you are, and you could use a little improvement.” Companies must hold this paradox in mind, fully accepting their current reality while actively transforming it.

So, how do you use becoming as a lever instead of a slogan?

Strip Back to First Principles

An individual grows by subtracting what is false: social masks, borrowed goals, inherited limitations. A company grows by subtracting copycat language, commodity features, and random OKRs. This requires what philosopher Søren Kierkegaard called “the courage to be disliked,” willing to disappoint those who prefer your false self.

Ask:

• What tension are we uniquely positioned to resolve?
• What noun do we want the market to assign to us?
• What beliefs must shift in buyers, team, ecosystem for that noun to stick?
• What would we have to give up to fully become this?
• Who will we disappoint in our becoming?

Design for Emergence, Not Control

Answering through dialogue, not brainstorm slogans, reveals the core narrative. Then every function, product, revenue, talent, becomes a delivery system for that narrative. But beware the control trap. Becoming is emergent, not engineered.

In practice that means:

Tell origin stories that end with an open question, not a claim. Maslow called these “peak experiences” moments that crack reality open and invite new meaning. Your brand’s peak is the founder’s confrontation with a stubborn problem. Narrate the before, the flash of insight, and the new path. But leave space for the listener to complete the logic: “If that worked for them, maybe it works for me.” Belief shifts without argument.

Design roadmaps that reward progression, not adoption. Peloton’s early surge sprang from shared sweat; the product felt like membership in a disciplined, future-self tribe. As soon as the content shifted toward entertainment rather than challenge, engagement declined. Why? The company stopped signalling progress toward the identity it once promised. The lesson: measure identity progression, not just user engagement.

Measure by internal congruence first, external metrics second. A person who chases external praise betrays their own compass and feels hollow. A company that optimizes quarterly KPIs while eroding narrative integrity loses brand trust. Consistency of story is the lead indicator; revenue is the lagging score.

The Timing of Transformation

Not every moment is right for becoming. Just as individuals have seasons of growth and consolidation, companies face windows of transformation opportunity. These typically align with:

1. Market Discontinuities: When old categories break down
2. Technology Shifts: When new capabilities enable new identities
3. Cultural Moments: When society’s values shift
4. Competitive Voids: When leaders stumble or categories stagnate
5. Internal Readiness: When culture and capability align

Missing the window can be fatal. Blockbuster saw Netflix but couldn’t become a streaming company. Its identity was too tied to physical retail. Kodak invented digital photography but couldn’t become a digital company. Film was in its DNA.

The Resistance to Becoming

Every act of becoming faces resistance, what Steven Pressfield calls “The Resistance” in creative work. For companies, resistance manifests as:

• Identity Inertia: “But we’ve always been…”
• Stakeholder Capture: Investors/customers who profit from status quo
• Competency Traps: Being too good at what you’re leaving behind
• Cultural Antibodies: Organization rejecting the new identity
• Narrative Vertigo: The disorientation of changing stories

Overcoming resistance requires what psychologist Robert Kegan calls “immunity to change” work — surfacing and addressing the hidden commitments that maintain the status quo.

The Architecture of Continuous Becoming

Finally, accept that becoming has no end state. Maslow parodied letters he received: “Dear Dr. Maslow, congratulations, I have achieved self-actualization.” He grimaced because the claim missed the point. Growth is endless, or it isn’t growth.

The same applies corporately. Amazon enshrines “Day One” to prevent Day Two complacency. Not surface-level corporate theatre, but a deep philosophical position about their very nature. As Bezos writes: “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by an excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.”

But there’s a deeper truth: companies that master continuous becoming don’t just avoid death. They achieve a kind of immortality. They become like Theseus’s ship, constantly renewing while maintaining identity. IBM went from tabulating machines to computers to software to AI. Nokia from paper to rubber to telecommunications. 3M from mining to sandpaper to Post-it notes to science.

The Practice of Strategic Becoming

For your next strategic session, try this becoming-focused approach:

1. Map Your Tension: What’s the gap between current and potential identity?
2. Name Your Resistance: What beliefs block transformation?
3. Find Your Peak Story: What moment revealed your deeper purpose?
4. Design Identity Markers: What actions would prove your new identity?
5. Create Progression Metrics: How will you measure becoming, not just performing?

Whether you run a team of ten or steer a global portfolio, treat positioning as a developmental practice, not a marketing sprint. Name the next identity, surface the doubts that block it, craft experiences that let stakeholders disprove those doubts themselves.

Do that, and the market will supply the label you already earned: category leader. But remember, the moment you think you’ve “arrived,” you’ve already begun declining. The companies that endure are those that institutionalize becoming itself.

Becoming is the job. Everything else is commentary.