Comments for 名を捨てて実を取る

isn't this more like: don't be hung up on appereances/surface/"big names"- get to the truth, the real thing behind that... I have a problem with interpreting 実 as profit...

I'm still a bit unfamiliar with a lot of Japanese expressions like these, so pardon if my response is incorrect, but a lot of these aren't literal translations. A more direct interpretation would be something like, "Throw away names and take the truth," but it can be rewritten in english in many ways. In this case, the translation provided isn't (at least, I would assume) meaning 実 is literally profit like money or income, but profit as in something prosperous. 

Just my two cents