It has been very helpful in understanding the types of choices I make with my available investing dollars. I never fully appreciated the truly large amount of risk associated with businesses with no earnings relative to the percent of dollars I would choose to allocate to such stocks. Notice, I did not say invest. The Motley Fool Rule Breaker team likens their investing style to that of venture capitalist's. That's probably a good way to describe it.
Growth stocks are growth stocks because the business creates economic value.
Growth and value are joined at the hip, as Buffett puts it. You will not have sustained growth without creating economic value. A growth company is what you really should refer to it as if you are an investor, if it does not create economic value as a business. The stock of Celera surely did grow to a lofty level some months ago. It probably would not have been an overnight collapse though.