What is profit? Profit is what you gain after an exertion of effort, this gain being of more value to you than what the effort was worth to you. When I rise from sleep and do 30 pushups, I can feel the expenditure of effort in my arms, my harder breathing, my increased heartbeats. I feel the energy going out of me, and that, technically, is loss. But when I stand up I feel the exhilaration of a sense of health, I am more wise awake and, abstractly, I know I am in a greater state of health. My good feeling and knowledge are, personally, of greater value to me than the temporary loss of energy. I have gained a value, I have profited. Thus we each of us profit all day long—the use of energy to cross a street, then the profit of standing on the other side; the sometimes boring use of energy of sitting at a computer, then the profit of new information, continued friendships, etc.; the paying of a couple dollars for a quart of milk, then the profit of having the milk itself.

We are all profit seekers and we gain profits all day long. We buy a dozen roses for our sweetheart, losing the money, but gaining more worth from seeing her radiant delight. Or, we sell some stocks which we had bought at one hundred dollar loss (at the time) for a five hundred dollar profit today. The essence of life is profit-making and we should regard it as a noble activity, for it is honest and clean. We must not listen to those who excoriate profit-chasers, for they themselves have been profiting all day long—eating meals, buying groceries, driving their cars to meetings in air conditioned offices where they excoriate profit-chasers. Hypocrites, all of them.

So, be proud of being a profit-chaser!