All Profit Comes From Inefficiency

Here's the line I use: all profit comes from inefficiency, either solving it or preserving it.

Most companies make their money by solving an inefficiency, eliminating it or making it less friction-filled. Some companies make their money by preserving inefficiency. Landlords. Anyone who hides behind bureaucracy, patents or licenses, including professional licenses. They make their money by keeping things harder for everyone else, to keep competitors out or down, and so preserve their margins.

I'm not saying either one is wrong. I'm saying you should know which one you do. If you don't, learn that first. If you make your money by preserving inefficiency, you won't want to talk the way a company talks when it makes its money by eliminating it.