Read the following two passages about starting a business, noting what they have in common and where they differ.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Sheila split open and the air was filled with gumballs. Yellow gumballs. This was awful for Stan, just awful. He had loved Sheila for a long time, fought for her heart, believed in their love until finally she had come around. They were about to kiss for the first time and then this: yellow gumballs.<\/p>\r\n
Stan went to a group to try to accept that Sheila was gone. It was a group for people whose unrequited love had ended in some kind of surrealist moment. There is a group for everything in California.<\/p>\r\n
After several months of hard work on himself with the group, Stan was ready to open a shop and sell the thousands of yellow gumballs. He did this because he believed in capitalism, he loved capitalism. He loved the dynamic surge and crash of Amazon\u2019s stock price, he loved the great concrete malls spreading across America like blood staining through a handkerchief, he loved how everything could be tracked and mirrored in numbers. When he closed the store each night he would count the gumballs sold, and he would determine his gross revenue, his operating expenses, his operating margin; he would adjust his balance sheet and learn his debt-to-equity ratio; and after this exercise each night, Stan felt he understood himself and was at peace, and he could go home to his apartment and drink tea and sleep, without shooting himself or thinking about Sheila.<\/p>\r\n
On the night before the IPO of gumballs.com, Sheila came to Stan in a dream. She was standing in a kiddie pool; Stan and his brothers and sisters were running around splashing and screaming; she had managed to insert herself into a Super 8<\/span> home movie of Stan\u2019s family, shot in the late seventies. She looked terribly sad.<\/p>\r\n \u201cSheila, where are you?\u201d Stan said. \u201cWhy did you leave me, why did you become gumballs?\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cThe Ant King has me,\u201d Sheila said. \u201cYou must rescue me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Stan woke up, he shaved, he put on his Armani suit, and drove his Lexus to his appointment with his venture capitalists and investment bankers. But the dream would not leave him.<\/p>\r\n . . .<\/p>\r\n \u201cGumballs are more than candy, isn\u2019t that right, Stan?\u201d said Monique, smiling broadly.<\/p>\r\n Stan nodded. His feet were still wet, inside his argyle socks. \u201cYes, gumballs have a lot of, ah, a lot greater significance than just candy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Monique paused and looked at Stan brightly, waiting for him to go on. Across the table, the three Credit Suisse First Boston underwriters\u2014Emilio Toad, Harry Hornpecker, and Moby Pfister\u2014sat stone-faced and unreacting in their gray double-breasted suits.<\/p>\r\n Stan tried to remember the gumballs.com business plan. \u201cThey have hard shells,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople, ah, they want challenge . . . the hardness, the gumminess . . .\u201d<\/p>\r\n Monique broke in smoothly. Monique, all seven post-gender-reassignment-surgery feet of her; Monique, always dressed to the nines and tens; Monique was a Valley legend for her instincts, her suavity, her rapacious, exemplary greed. Stan had sold Monique on the idea of gumballs.com, and she had invested\u2014found him the right contacts, the right team\u2014and here they were at the Big Day, the Exit Strategy.<\/p>\r\n \u201cStan!\u201d she cried joyously, fixing him with a penetrating stare. \u201cDon\u2019t be shy! Tell them about how gumballs are sex! Tell them about our top-gun semiotics professors, tell them about gumballs as a cultural trope! You see,\u201d she said, swooping onto Hornpecker, Pfister & Toad, \u201cyou can\u2019t think of this as a candy thing, a food & bev thing, a consumer cyclic thing; no way, Jos\u00e9! Think Pok\u00e9mon. Think World Wide Wrestling. Think Star<\/span> <\/i>Wars<\/span>!\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u201cCould we get back to the numbers,\u201d said Emilio Toad in a voice that sounded like a cat being liquefied in an industrial-strength mixer. The gray faces of Harry Hornpecker and Moby Pfister twitched in relief.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n What differences<\/strong> between the two passages\u00a0stand out to you? Type\u00a0these differences here.<\/p>\r\n [practice-area rows=\"6\"][\/practice-area]\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"196546\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"196546\"]<\/p>\r\n Some possible answers include<\/p>\r\n\r\n Read the following two passages about starting a business, noting what they have in common and where they differ.<\/p>\n An\u00a0organization that\u00a0aims to earn profit through its operations and is concerned with its own interests and not those of the public (non-profit) is known as a for-profit corporation.<\/p>\n A for-profit cooperation is usually an organization operating in the private sector that\u00a0sets goals\u00a0which eventually help the organization itself. This kind of a company often makes shares of ownership available to the general public. The purchasers of those shares then become the company\u2019s shareholders; shareholders have bought a portion of ownership of the corporation by giving away a certain amount of money (differentiating from company to company) or assets of a particular value. Such organizations are usually not aided by the government, as they are working for private financial gains, unlike a non-profit organization, which exists to serve a mission. The nature of a for-profit corporation is such that it is required to pay applicable taxes and register with the state. Any donation they receive will also be subject to the tax policies of the concerned country.\u00a0As these organizations are all corporations and have a separate identity from their owners the owners are not in their personal capacity required to satisfy any debts which the company might owe to anyone.<\/p>\n Unlike non-profit organizations, the policies of these organizations are usually profit oriented. Managers (corporate employees) here have a profit-oriented mindset and aim at maximizing the revenue of the firm, which in turn contributes to the profits of the shareholders\/owners.\u00a0Their aim can be accompanied by a goal of serving the society; however, that usually happens only in cases of specific\u00a0corporations (B-corporations, which we\u2019ll learn about later).<\/p>\n Some organizations are not established solely for the purpose of making and retaining profit;\u00a0however, they function in much the same way as a business. They establish goals and work to meet them in an effective, efficient manner. Thus, most of the business principles introduced in this text also apply to non-profits. Let\u2019s take a look at some of the characteristics of the non-profit organization.<\/p>\n A\u00a0non-profit business, often\u00a0referred to as an NPO (non-profit organization), \u00a0is an\u00a0organization\u00a0that uses its\u00a0surplus revenues\u00a0to further achieve its purpose or mission, rather than distributing its surplus income to the organization\u2019s directors (or equivalents) as profit or\u00a0dividends. This is known as the distribution constraint.\u00a0The decision to adopt a non-profit legal structure is one that will often have taxation implications, particularly where the non-profit seeks income tax exemption, charitable status and so on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sheila split open and the air was filled with gumballs. Yellow gumballs. This was awful for Stan, just awful. He had loved Sheila for a long time, fought for her heart, believed in their love until finally she had come around. They were about to kiss for the first time and then this: yellow gumballs.<\/p>\n Stan went to a group to try to accept that Sheila was gone. It was a group for people whose unrequited love had ended in some kind of surrealist moment. There is a group for everything in California.<\/p>\n After several months of hard work on himself with the group, Stan was ready to open a shop and sell the thousands of yellow gumballs. He did this because he believed in capitalism, he loved capitalism. He loved the dynamic surge and crash of Amazon\u2019s stock price, he loved the great concrete malls spreading across America like blood staining through a handkerchief, he loved how everything could be tracked and mirrored in numbers. When he closed the store each night he would count the gumballs sold, and he would determine his gross revenue, his operating expenses, his operating margin; he would adjust his balance sheet and learn his debt-to-equity ratio; and after this exercise each night, Stan felt he understood himself and was at peace, and he could go home to his apartment and drink tea and sleep, without shooting himself or thinking about Sheila.<\/p>\n On the night before the IPO of gumballs.com, Sheila came to Stan in a dream. She was standing in a kiddie pool; Stan and his brothers and sisters were running around splashing and screaming; she had managed to insert herself into a Super 8<\/span> home movie of Stan\u2019s family, shot in the late seventies. She looked terribly sad.<\/p>\n \u201cSheila, where are you?\u201d Stan said. \u201cWhy did you leave me, why did you become gumballs?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ant King has me,\u201d Sheila said. \u201cYou must rescue me.\u201d<\/p>\n Stan woke up, he shaved, he put on his Armani suit, and drove his Lexus to his appointment with his venture capitalists and investment bankers. But the dream would not leave him.<\/p>\n . . .<\/p>\n \u201cGumballs are more than candy, isn\u2019t that right, Stan?\u201d said Monique, smiling broadly.<\/p>\n Stan nodded. His feet were still wet, inside his argyle socks. \u201cYes, gumballs have a lot of, ah, a lot greater significance than just candy.\u201d<\/p>\n Monique paused and looked at Stan brightly, waiting for him to go on. Across the table, the three Credit Suisse First Boston underwriters\u2014Emilio Toad, Harry Hornpecker, and Moby Pfister\u2014sat stone-faced and unreacting in their gray double-breasted suits.<\/p>\n Stan tried to remember the gumballs.com business plan. \u201cThey have hard shells,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople, ah, they want challenge . . . the hardness, the gumminess . . .\u201d<\/p>\n Monique broke in smoothly. Monique, all seven post-gender-reassignment-surgery feet of her; Monique, always dressed to the nines and tens; Monique was a Valley legend for her instincts, her suavity, her rapacious, exemplary greed. Stan had sold Monique on the idea of gumballs.com, and she had invested\u2014found him the right contacts, the right team\u2014and here they were at the Big Day, the Exit Strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cStan!\u201d she cried joyously, fixing him with a penetrating stare. \u201cDon\u2019t be shy! Tell them about how gumballs are sex! Tell them about our top-gun semiotics professors, tell them about gumballs as a cultural trope! You see,\u201d she said, swooping onto Hornpecker, Pfister & Toad, \u201cyou can\u2019t think of this as a candy thing, a food & bev thing, a consumer cyclic thing; no way, Jos\u00e9! Think Pok\u00e9mon. Think World Wide Wrestling. Think Star<\/span> <\/i>Wars<\/span>!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCould we get back to the numbers,\u201d said Emilio Toad in a voice that sounded like a cat being liquefied in an industrial-strength mixer. The gray faces of Harry Hornpecker and Moby Pfister twitched in relief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Which of these passages did you enjoy reading more? Why?<\/p>\n<\/h2>\r\n
Discussion<\/h2>\r\n
Question 1<\/h3>\r\nWhich of these passages did you enjoy reading more? Why?\r\n\r\n[practice-area rows=\"4\"][\/practice-area]\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"498177\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"498177\"]The answer will vary depending on your personal preferences. Most readers are likely to prefer Passage 2, because of its use of narrative, and the style in which it's written. If you're interested in starting your own business, however, the practical knowledge of the first passage will\u00a0be more appealing to you.[\/hidden-answer]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n
Question 2<\/h3>\r\n
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\r\n \r\nPassage 1<\/td>\r\n Passage 2<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n \r\n Longer paragraphs<\/td>\r\n shorter paragraphs<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n \r\n fact-based content<\/td>\r\n story-based content<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n \r\n formal tone and vocabulary<\/td>\r\n informal tone and vocabulary<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n \r\n informative<\/td>\r\n entertaining<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nDid you note anything else?\r\n\r\n[\/hidden-answer]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n Question 3<\/h3>\r\nWhat similarities<\/strong>\u00a0in the passages\u00a0are apparent to you? Type these similarities here.\r\n\r\n[practice-area rows=\"6\"][\/practice-area]\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"310683\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"310683\"]\r\n\r\nSome possible answers include\r\n
\r\n\r\n
\r\n \r\nBoth passages...<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n \r\n share the topic of\u00a0starting a new business (loosely, admittedly)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n \r\n include facts<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nDid you note anything else?\r\n\r\n[\/hidden-answer]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n Question 4<\/h3>\r\nBoth passages here are excerpts from longer works. Which of these would you want to keep reading to\r\n
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Passage #1: “Making a Profit”<\/h2>\n
For-Profit Businesses<\/h3>\n
Structure<\/span><\/h4>\n
Aims<\/span><\/h4>\n
Non-Profit Businesses<\/h3>\n
Passage #2: “The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale”<\/h3>\n
<\/h2>\n
Discussion<\/h2>\n
Question 1<\/h3>\n