The flywheel effect refers to the fact that, to get a stationary flywheel moving, you must exert tremendous effort at first, turning it round by round, with every turn requiring great effort. But none of that effort is wasted—the flywheel will turn faster and faster. When entering a new field, everyone goes through a similar process. Put simply, things are difficult at the beginning, but once you get going, they become easier. The saying “everything is difficult at the start” captures the central idea of the flywheel effect.
To explain it in greater depth, the flywheel effect has four stages:
The first stage is confirming the goal. At this stage, you need to confirm that what you are doing is right—in other words, confirm the direction in which you need to apply your effort. This requires insight.
The second stage is laying the foundation. The characteristic of this stage is that you put in a great deal of effort without seeing any obvious results. What you need is patience.
The third stage is continuing to apply effort—do not stop. The characteristic of this stage is that results are unstable: relaxing even slightly could lead to immediate failure, while your efforts may or may not yield proportional returns. It is hard to say for sure, but one thing is certain: you need perseverance.
The fourth stage is takeoff. At this point, you will find that your earlier efforts have begun to pay off. The enormous momentum will keep the flywheel spinning on its own for a long time. Easing off occasionally is fine, and applying a little more effort can make it spin faster. This stage is characterized by self-sustaining momentum: easing off does not stop it, and adding effort makes it go faster. There is therefore more room for error at this stage. All you need to do is maintain the momentum and make occasional adjustments. The flywheel effect thus follows the logic of reinforcing loops and embodies a compounding mindset.
A successful entrepreneurial journey can illustrate the flywheel effect. If you start in the right direction, the early work of laying a foundation may not produce immediate results. During the growth phase, the business builds scale and develops core competitive strengths. Once it reaches a certain point, it operates steadily, turns losses into profits, and continues generating profits. At that stage, occasional lapses in motivation or uncertainty will not cause the entire venture to fail. Personal learning and development also follow the flywheel effect. In the early stages, laying a foundation produces no obvious results. In the middle stages, even with persistence, performance may fluctuate. But once you have accumulated enough knowledge and skills, your performance will stabilize at a high level. Simply keeping an eye on the latest knowledge and cutting-edge advances can then help you maintain a leading position in your field.
Unlike other mental models, the flywheel effect does not solve a specific problem for us. Instead, it offers a way to understand a problem: when you find it difficult to keep doing something and see little result, consider whether it could eventually develop a flywheel effect. This can help you be more patient and persistent when pursuing the right things.