No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

Coolidge frames business not as an end in itself but as a social instrument: an “enterprise” survives only by meeting real human needs and rendering genuine service. Profit, in this view, is not the primary purpose but the consequence (and test) of usefulness—if an organization stops serving others, it loses the basis for public support and market demand and therefore collapses. The passage also reflects a moral argument about capitalism: legitimacy comes from reciprocity and contribution, not mere self-enrichment. It anticipates later stakeholder-oriented language while remaining grounded in a pragmatic claim—service is what makes profitability sustainable over time.