I'm glad I'm getting downvotes on my various comments here. I hope this means this basic idea is getting through peoples conciousness and making an impact, and it's not just 'a downvote for you, I don't agree'.
The fact is, just about everything that you sit on, touch and use was created for and sustained by profitability. From the ISP you connected to, to the device you used, all were designed and built by people using doing their best to make a profit in providing something of value to you.
Somehow we've ended up in a place (again) where making a profit is seen as a dirty business. I would expect to find that if I were posting to a socialist forum. But on a site revolving around startups and technology the last thing people should be doing is treating and using profit as a dirty word, something not to be uttered in polite company.
The fact is, if we're in a startup or technology company of any kind, we have to do things that create value for our customers and investors. It's moral to work hardest and smartest and try and win, certainly more moral than trying to slack off and hope someone else creates the value and masks our lack of effort. And in working hardest, smartest, doing that process we will create value for everyone involved. And that is profit.
Many of the great inventions/discoveries in the history of science were not made for profit. Newton would not have been a better mathematician had he been paid more. Da Vinci would not have painted better had his profit margins been higher. Feynman's insights would not have been more profound had his desire to win been greater.
Profit is not necessarily good or necessarily bad. There are cases where it's incentives are good. There are cases where it is bad.
The fact is, just about everything that you sit on, touch and use was created for and sustained by profitability. From the ISP you connected to, to the device you used, all were designed and built by people using doing their best to make a profit in providing something of value to you.
Somehow we've ended up in a place (again) where making a profit is seen as a dirty business. I would expect to find that if I were posting to a socialist forum. But on a site revolving around startups and technology the last thing people should be doing is treating and using profit as a dirty word, something not to be uttered in polite company.
The fact is, if we're in a startup or technology company of any kind, we have to do things that create value for our customers and investors. It's moral to work hardest and smartest and try and win, certainly more moral than trying to slack off and hope someone else creates the value and masks our lack of effort. And in working hardest, smartest, doing that process we will create value for everyone involved. And that is profit.