Weirdly we’ve seen companies survive a long time without profit. The obsession is growth, which is maybe not so good.
I don't think you see that very often, unless you have funding sources willing to keep putting money in for some future payoff.
A good example of that would be startups. Often you have someone who has a really good idea, and he needs investors. It might start with a small angel investor, then get through series A funding, and there could be millions of dollars invested before a product ever reaches market, much less earns a profit. The goal is a deferred payoff, either in the manner of a disruptive company that goes IPO and makes the investors and founders rich, or becomes an acquisition target and makes the investors and founders rich.
Obviously we saw high-profile companies like Tesla constantly raising funds to grow and investors believed enough in their story to keep footing the bill. Others like Amazon weren't showing profit, but were making money and constantly reinvesting that money into the business to grow.
But these are exceptions, not the rule. For a small business owner that, for example, starts a restaurant, or a hair salon, or a medical practice, or an architecture firm, or a brewery, they need profit or they die. Because in that space nobody is going to continue throwing money at them for a "story". Most small businesses are designed to make money for their owners, not to favor explosive growth.
