I'm interested in your reasoning behind saying perpetual business growth is "literally impossible."
Perpetual growth is to some degree inverse to speed of growth IMO.
Widget X comes to market
It needs to make x amount of money to cover start-up costs, production costs, and reasonable staff pay. It also needs some "rainy day" money, hopefully an intelligently managed line of credit.
Then the company wants to expand...expansion to a degree is good but eventually a tipping point is reached...the company finds that the scale of their operations has changed and that means they must figure out how to adapt. Some companies do this better then others...and some make the adaptation by morphing into an entirely different entity.
Are public companies even a good thing? They allow people to invest in a company and give companies extra revenue that is good.
But they also become slaves to the rules and whims of the market. A company may have created something special and unique they may have a corporate culture but now the share holders and the board are in control.
IMO private companies are better as long as they are managed well. Of course the heir is not the same person as the founder in a public or private company and things change all the time.
Why do we think the apex of a company is to go public?
It used to mean they were seeking capitol to grow or innovate....what does it means now?
Just something to ponder