Rob, profit has to be the first and foremost "guiding light", to use your words.  That said, I don't believe that "doing what's right" and making a profit are mutually exclusive.  Did you miss what I said about serving my fellow man?

Free market economies work because we all act in our own best interest.  You provide the best service to your customer as a means of competing in the market; your customer looks for the best product at the cheapest price.  I sum it up this way: no work, no eat.  If you can't make a profit, what's the sense in being in business?

Michael Douglas' character may have been a ruthless corporate raider, but that doesn't alter the fact that the basic philosophy is right...greed does work.  For better or for worse, when it comes down to it, we're in business to make a profit and feed ourselves and our families, not because we have this great "love for mankind".  We independent abstractors need to start being a little more "greedy".

Would you be doing what you do if there were nothing to be gained?  Just some food for thought.

Regards,
Scott