I’m not at all against making a profit! Not at all! I make money with my baking and my quilting. But the reason I make money is because I have a passion for both baking and quilting and as a result of that passion people pay me for what I produce.
If I was to set out solely to make money then I’d probably stop using real butter and hand-picked berries for my pastries because it’s more profitable to use shortening and frozen berries. I’d also use cheaper filler and cheaper fabrics for my quilts and I’d have them made in China or India to save on labor.
But then the core reasons why people buy my pastries and my quilts would be gone, wouldn’t it? And I’d no longer have a passion for what I’m doing because it would just be a means to an end: getting money. And sooner or later I’d stop baking and quilting in order to just invest my money in some other more profitable venture.
And my baking and quilting business would end.
That’s what I am talking about here.
If you want to run a restaurant like Olive Garden then do it! Love what you do, be passionate about food and hospitality, and people will pay you accordingly and you’ll make money AS A RESULT of your passion.
But if all you care about is the bottom line and you’re going to organize your restaurant to milk customers for their dollars then you’d be better off closing the restaurant and investing in something more profitable.
That doesn’t make me a communist.
“That doesn’t make me a communist.”
it does to those that worship the “free market”. These worshippers attack anyone who does not completely, 100% feel that the only thing important in business today is the “stockholder”.
“If I was to set out solely to make money then I’d probably stop using real butter and hand-picked berries for my pastries...”
What you are doing, economically, is maximizing your profit margin by creating a premium product.
You are doing this unconsciously, but that is the reality.
Seriously, you should read both Milton Friedman and Frederick Hayek.
They’ll learn you up real good on economics.