Adam Grant, a professor of psychology at Wharton, admitted how wrong he was to pass up on the opportunity to invest in an online startup selling glasses. Because the company didn’t have a functioning website the day before its launch, and because other competitors were already operating in the space, he didn’t invest. He thought the startup’s procrastination showed a lack of commitment. But the company, Warby Parker, went on to be recognized as one of the world’s most innovative companies and was subsequently valued at over a billion dollars.

In his later research into original thinkers, Grant found that procrastinators are more creative than planners, and “improvers” (those who enter an existing industry with an improved idea) have a lower failure rate than “first-movers.” The founders of Warby Parker weren’t dragging their feet; they were spending their time thinking about bigger issues, such as how to make people feel comfortable buying glasses online, not how to get online as quickly as possible. It didn’t fit the mold of what Grant thought an enterprising startup should be, but it worked.

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