Quotes About Profit

In America any inventor who discovers some new tool that will improve production will always win more social approval and acknowledgement than the traditional type of the intellectual; moreover, anything that is profit, reality or action in the material sense of the word will always be valued more than anything that may derive from a line of aristocratic dignity.

Technology isn't the enemy, it is our ally, but only if we adopt a new model that puts people before profit. I realize that we seem far from that model, but I have seen it in action and it is a beautiful thing. So I'm not willing to give up yet. Hope is the last thing to die.

I'm an introspective guy when there's money in it.

A well-managed business will have a high return on invested capital. But that's a consequence. It's not a way to manage a business.

We're only going to invest our shareholders' money where we think they can get the kind of returns they expected when they invested their money with Exxon Mobil.

I don't think of investing in Cuba after all the hardships of the people there as a profit-making thing for us. I have thought of it as revitalizing the island.

What's the logic of investing millions in agriculture if it will not pay off?

Every time we make an investment decision at FedEx, we ask ourselves: 'What is the return on this investment?'

Now, more then ever, we have the ability to make films for almost nothing and that's broken down all barriers of entry. I think it's a new golden age of film-making. With that, there needs to be the ability to recoup investment dollars, people need to make money.

I hope that my investment into Atomico will become my best financial investment to date.

Second homes are an investment.

What investors want is growth, margin, and cash.

We need the banks to be attractive to investors again.

I think 2tor has a chance of remaking higher ed in a really great way. If we do that, those investors will do well.

Our investors are here for only one reason: great returns. They want to make money.

Investors tend to avoid food companies.

I realized I had it made because you don't have to destroy anything to get honey. You can just use the same things over and over again, put it in a quart canning jar, and you've got $12.

It's so difficult to make the money we produce at Jimmy John's.

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse.

while the firm sailed along cautiously, more aggressive banks—especially Salomon Brothers and Goldman, Sachs—began making more money. This was a serious problem for Morgan Stanley. In investment banking, cash conquers all. A bank's goal was to make money, not to preserve its chastity. If Morgan Stanley could outearn rivals by capitalizing on its stellar reputation, fine. But if less-reputed banks were generating more cash, Morgan Stanley was doing something wrong.

The downside risk made longer-maturity PERLS especially attractive to sell. Selling a five-year PERLS to a widow or orphan buyer meant you didn't have to worry about the repayment of principal for five years—an entire career on Wall Street—and even then there was a decent chance the buyer would have bet correctly and made money. Not even a widow or an orphan will complain about receiving $200 instead of $100 at maturity.

From the firm's perspective it was important to make as much money up front as possible on these trades. Take out a big fee, plant the time bomb, walk away, and wait. Of course, after the explosion the derivatives losers would sue, but as long as the firm had made enough money up front and could defend the lawsuit adequately, it would be fine. The important message I took from the disclaimers was this: The way you made money selling derivatives was by trying to blow up your clients.

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit." —Paul of Tarsus in 2 Corinthians 2:17, NIV

A program whose basic thesis is not that the system of free private enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried.