Jim Collins uses the metaphor of a flywheel to illustrate how a self-sustaining system is created: “You’re pushing no harder than during the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster.”4 He adds, “Two turns … then four … then eight … the flywheel builds momentum … sixteen … thirty-two … moving faster … a thousand … ten thousand … a hundred thousand.5 Then at some point—breakthrough! The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.” Put simply, a system is self-sustaining if it requires less and less investment of energy over time. Once it’s set in motion, maintaining
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