How to Build a Gratitude Flywheel to Drive Entrepreneurial Success

Creating and sustaining a flywheel is a goal for many businesses, because once a flywheel gets moving, it takes far less effort to maintain its forward momentum. Jim Collins popularized the flywheel concept in business, which is the idea that small, incremental improvements build up over time into a self-perpetuating cycle of growth.

As we approach the end of the year and the U.S. Thanksgiving season, it’s the perfect time for founders to consider the benefits of a different kind of flywheel: The Gratitude Flywheel.

The Gratitude Flywheel

As you visualize your gratitude flywheel, it could look something like this:

Gratitude → Better mental clarity → Better leadership decisions → Better team energy → Better outcomes → More reasons to be grateful.

Your Gratitude Flywheel may look something like this:

Gratitude → Better mental clarity → Better leadership decisions → Better team energy → Better outcomes → More reasons to be grateful.

Gratitude may be one of the most powerful practices available to founders. And perhaps because it is free, also the one most often overlooked.

Benefits of Gratitude for Entrepreneurs

Study after study shows that gratitude helps people — and companies — become healthier, happier, and more successful. In a business setting, gratitude can strengthen mental health, deepen team loyalty, improve customer experience, and anchor leaders in clarity. It can also improve employee retention.

EO members have lived this firsthand. Their insights reveal how gratitude can transform how you lead and how you live.

Let’s explore six stages of The Gratitude Flywheel and how it might benefit you and your business.

1. Gratitude Sharpens Awareness and Presence

Wendy Lieber (EO South Florida) experienced a mental spiral many entrepreneurs know all too well: She would find herself awake at 3 a.m., replaying the day’s missteps. She explored worst-case scenarios and berated herself, wondering whether she was doing enough. And worse: negative thoughts seemed to follow her throughout the day.

“My mind was swirling with petty, evil thoughts about an email I forgot to send, or how I skipped the gym and binged on carbs,” she recalls. She found herself in that common entrepreneurial trap of chasing milestones, believing, “I’ll be happy once this happens.”

Gratitude stopped that vicious cycle.

“Then I found the answer: gratitude. It’s a very simple, yet extremely powerful, transformational tool,” she says.

Wendy adopted a regular gratitude practice, noting five things she felt grateful for every day and sharing them on Facebook. It retrained her mind to seek out a more optimistic view on — well, everything: “I became more present to the wonderful things in life, both business and personal.”

Wendy’s experience exemplifies the first step in building a Gratitude Flywheel: awareness of how much there is to be grateful for in your life and business.

2. Clarity Improves Mental Well-Being

Gratitude has positive biological and neurological effects: “The neuroscience of gratitude shows it activates brain regions associated with reward, enhancing feelings of contentment and emotional wellbeing.”

A regular gratitude practice can result in long-term positive brain changes, which in turn support mental health and resilience.

Gratitude is like kryptonite for stress.

“Stress sucks. Figuring out how to deal with it is important for your health. And, as every entrepreneur knows, there’s no shortage of stress in running a company,” said Jay Feitlinger, an EO Arizona elumni. “Gratitude counters that pressure, cultivating positive feelings, enhanced empathy and improved self-esteem.”

"Gratitude is a very simple, yet extremely powerful, transformational tool."

--Wendy Lieber, EO South Florida

When your mind is no longer controlled by stress, you become empowered to lead from a place of calm instead of reactivity.

Feelings of clarity and well-being represent the second stage of the Gratitude Flywheel. When you reach this stage, you start to generate momentum.

3. Mental Clarify Fuels Better Leadership Decisions

Mental clarity is an advantage in entrepreneurship because it enhances your powers of decision-making.

Dandapani, a Hindu priest, entrepreneur, and popular speaker at EO events, shared why: “You have the power to overcome anxiety by controlling where your awareness goes,” he explains.

“Being in control over your awareness enables you to say, ‘I’m not going to visit the fear or anxiety areas of my mind. I’m going to focus on an area of calm so I can think logically and make decisions from that place.’”

When you can focus on the positive and get out from under inherent business stressors, you are better positioned to make stronger decisions that drive the business forward.

Marissa Levin (EO Baltimore elumni) starts each day with gratitude.

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough,” Marissa says. “When you begin with appreciation rather than anxiety, you’re better equipped for the curve balls that leadership throws your way.”

4. Gratitude Fuels Team Energy

Once leaders anchor themselves in gratitude and start making better decisions, positive impact radiates outward and starts to snowball.

“Since learning the power of ‘thank you’ (thanks to EO), I have seen a tremendous increase in celebrating and team collaboration among our team,” says Seth Greene (EO Western New York). “With our recognition system in place, everyone can be confident that their work is seen and appreciated.”

Successful entrepreneurs know that when you treat employees well, they are more likely to treat customers well. Teams with a culture of gratitude are more likely to go above and beyond to provide your customers with a standout experience.

5. Strong Relationships Lead to Better Outcomes—Business and Personal

When gratitude shapes how you show up for others, outcomes begin to shift.

Wendy Lieber describes how her gratitude practice helped her become present to the everyday miracles in life, such as the sound of rain or a tree she never noticed before. It even helped her reframe difficult business situations such as losing a customer and realizing, “Wow, I’ll never make those mistakes again.”

Tapping into the power of gratitude changes your business life, too.

“With team members, gratitude reinforces positive behavior, noteworthy actions, and standout job performance,” says Barry Raber, EO Portland. “I find that people are universally motivated by being appreciated.”

Try adding gratitude checkpoints to your business processes. For example, send customers a handwritten note on their service anniversary, or surprise customers with birthday cards signed by your entire team. There’s no end of ways to show you care, and whichever method fits your team will increase the momentum of your Gratitude Flywheel.

6. Better Outcomes Result in More Gratitude

This is where gratitude becomes self-renewing.

“I was surprised to learn that gratitude is contagious,” Wendy Lieber notes. “I didn’t expect that my gratitude practice would impact other people,” she says. Her friends thanked her, sharing how her practice strengthened them during hard times.

Barry Raber, who often sends handwritten thank-you notes to employees, vendors, and customers, shared that he sometimes even receives a thank-you note for his thank-you notes. (Talk about a self-perpetuating cycle!)

As leaders begin to experience the ripple effect—happier teams, healthier minds, deeper presence—they gain even more to be grateful for. And the flywheel spins faster.

Tips to Start Your Gratitude Flywheel Today

A gratitude practice doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. Start small, but commit to a regular practice such as:

• Start your day with gratitude.
• Pause during the day to ask: What is going right? What small win did we overlook?
• Start meetings with a one-word gratitude exercise.
• Write down three things you feel grateful for.
• Systematize appreciation with notes, messages, or customer milestones.

“My personal gratitude practice is high-speed and low-maintenance; as I lie in bed at night before falling asleep, I think of everything I’m grateful for,” says Franziska Iseli, EO APAC Platinum One Bridge. “Some people prefer a written practice. I say pick whatever works best for you.”

The more you practice gratitude, the more easily things to be grateful for in your work and life will jump out at you. Practice makes it easier to acknowledge gratitude. It’s a natural flywheel scenario.

Are you ready to kick your Entrepreneurial Gratitude Flywheel into motion? You’ll be grateful you did!

By Anne-Wallis Droter, EO Staff Writer

Related posts of interest:

• An Entrepreneur Celebrates Age 42 with Growth, Gratitude, and Clarity
• 3 Gratitude Habits for Business Leaders to Motivate Your Team
• How Top Entrepreneurs Recognize Employee Appreciation Day