The average person has a really poor idea of what profit means because they analogize between their personal finances and a company's finances. What profit mea

The average person has a really poor idea of what profit means because they analogize between their personal finances and a company's finances. What profit means for a company is essentially: "Across my entire company, of all the things I could be doing, I couldn't find a single initiative that I believe will yield me a risk adjusted ROI that is greater than just leaving the money in a bank account." Growing companies shouldn't be making a profit because they should be limited by their ability to execute on attractive growth opportunities fast enough. Mature companies can make profits because they've reached the limits of their attractive growth and now can be focused on harvesting the rewards.