“Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person.  If you don’t have enough of it you are out of the game.  But if you think your life is about breathing you’re really missing something.”  Peter Drucker

I came across this quote recently when reading an excellent book by John Blakey called, The Trusted Executive.  I had to stop reading and digest the quote…

Drucker’s sentiments wonderfully align with my philosophy of business.  Business is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end.  It is a means to contributing to the betterment of people’s lives, and, therefore, to the betterment of our communities and of our world.

In other words, it’s not about profit, but what we can do with that profit.

We all know the importance of oxygen to life.  An average human being can go without food for approximately 3 weeks and still live; 3 days without water and live; 3 hours in a harshly cold environment without shelter and live; but only 3 minutes without oxygen before brain damage begins to occur.  We die if we have no oxygen for between 5-10 minutes.

Likewise in business.  Without profit a business cannot last long, unless of course someone is willing to inject capital to keep it afloat.  However, the long term health and viability of any business is ultimately contingent on its ability to generate profit.

As is the case for you and me: our health is contingent on our ability to effectively process oxygen.  Clearly we are dependent on many other factors, but lack of oxygen will kill us the quickest.  However, what kind of quality of life would you enjoy if all you focussed on was your breathing?

“Hey Bob, it’s a gorgeous summer day and the lake is like glass.  Do you want to go out in the boat?”

“No thanks, I’m going to stay in bed and make sure I keep breathing.”

What?!  If you had a perfectly healthy friend who would forgo the myriad of enjoyable activities this life has to offer simply to ensure he/she keeps breathing, you would probably suggest they get some psychiatric help.

It’s not about the breathing, but what you can do while you are breathing.

It is very easy in business to focus on profit because it is easily measured – it is a simple means by which we keep score.  However, if business is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, then we need to be measuring other things.  Increased profit should not simply be looked at as a means to increase owners’ standard of living, but also their standard of giving.

What really is the business of the business?  Is it simply the provision of your product or service to your customers?  Or, is it what your product or service creates in the lives of your customers and your customers’ families?  Is it the benefit your company creates in the lives of your employees and their families, in your vendors and their families?  Is it the utilization of corporate profit for philanthropic means?

Yes, to all of the above.

If our primary measure of success in business is profit, we are missing the joy of understanding the benefit we create through our businesses in a plethora of other ways.  Great, your business is profitable – you are alive and breathing – now, what will you do with that life?  How will you use the life you have to contribute to the betterment of other people’s lives, to your community and to the world?

Breathe, breathe deeply – become as efficient and effective as you can in the processing of oxygen – but it’s what you do with that life that really matters.  As someone once said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

Create profit, create lots of it – become as efficient and effective as you can in creating profit – but it’s what you do with that profit that really matters.  Great business isn’t measured by the profit we create, but by what we create with that profit.

It’s not about profit – it’s what you do with it that really matters.