What is meant by the goal of profit maximization?

What is meant by the goal of profit maximization?
Profit Maximization is an interesting and rather deep issue in Economics. Please understand that this question can be answered from various approach and interpretation. There are other disciplines like Business and Management which offers a slightly different answer.For example, if you are a Finance student, you might use the term to maximize shareholder value. ( which can be different from this goal ). From my understanding, profit maximization alone cannot be an appropriate goal for a firm. When I teach my students, I often ask them, if each of you start a company today, will the reason to do so, just to maximize profit ?. Although many firms do aim to maximize profit in their existence, not all do so. When we say maximize profit, this means to get the most profit in the firm's existence. And there are other firms that don't. Other goals of the firm can be expansion or growth, where they focus on establishing more branches or growing larger, while other firms focus on sales maximization, where they focus on selling more. There are also other firms that put the environment or social issues as their goal. ( although this can be argued if it's a marketing ploy ). Apart from these different goals of firms, we need to understand that different firms have different goals. A small grocery shop will have a different goal than a multinational company. And a different environment can also affect the goals of the company. If the firms operates in a monopolistic environment, then profit maximization is possible, as it's the only firm. If the firm operates in a perfectly competitive environment, the goal of profit maximization is not possible, as profit can be influenced by new firms who enter the environment and old firms who exit it.