Profit - The Small Business

Much to my dismay, many of my friends speak of profit as the curse of our time.  What is profit?  To me, it is the reason a person opens a dry cleaner, as an example.  You gamble your savings, mortgages your house, and borrow money from worried relatives.  This money permits the person to sign the lease on a space in a mall, pay for the equipment to clean clothes, hire some employees and then advertise the business is now open.  He has gambled what may well be the money and future of his family.  If he wins, the store is a success, and the worry is justified.  If he looses, well life will be altered significantly.  The reward is the profit!  This is the pot of gold for having rolled the dice.  This the money that you take home after you pay your employees, the rent, the payments on your loans, taxes, etc.  There are lean times when you start the business  and when you are the only one who doesn't get paid, and you worry with your spouse over if you should have taken this on.  Your employees can grouse about conditions, pay, and benefits, but you have to shoulder the lean times to hopefully have the good times.  Every time I meet a successful entrepreneur I take time to shake their hand and congratulate them.  If they have an expensive car or lavish home, they have earned it!  This is capitalism, and God be with us if we choose to put dry cleaning in the hands of a government that can't manage a Congressional restaurant or their own Congressional bank.