The Flywheel and Vincent van Gogh!

Posted 15 Sep 2017

Over the summer I read Jim Collins book “Good to Great”, which outlines the variables and processes companies go through in their rise to stardom. One principle, near the end, is the Flywheel, which is a metaphor of the continues small scale efforts companies put in, year after year, that eventually leads to a breakthrough & acceleration towards success. The author points out that it isn’t 1 huge push, or one lucky break, or a grand program, or inventing a killer innovation that leads to success. It is countless small steps, all building up the momentum, to create the almost unstoppable success.

I’m currently reading “the Personal MBA” (another business book) and just read a quote by Vincent van Gogh, that reminded me of Jim Collins’ Flywheel effect; van Gogh said “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

Isn’t it interesting that van Gogh virtually said the same thing that mr. Collins concluded, in a totally different field, over 100 years earlier.

And now… please excuse me, I have my own flywheel to turn: Bible Cartoons!

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