The Flywheel Effect

Imagine pushing a stone wheel 10 feet tall. You push, nothing happens, you push again. It moves an inch, hours pass. One full rotation, then a second, faster, then a tenth. By the hundredth, the wheel's own momentum does the work. No single push cause the breakthrough. Every push built on the one before. This is how Amazon grew from a bookstore into a $600 billion machine. Jeff Bezos sketched it on a napkin in 2001. Lower prices attract more customers. More customers attract more sellers. More sellers increase selection. More selection attracts more customers. More customers create volume. Volume lowers costs. Lower costs fund lower prices. And the wheel turns again. Each rotation makes the next one easier. 25 years later, the wheel has not stopped. Costco runs the same physics with membership fees. Over 80 million members pay to shop there. The fees fund operations, so Costco can cap product margins at 14%, half what supermarkets charge.