Every entrepreneur has been there: Staring at a looming deadline, knowing you should have started weeks ago, feeling that familiar wave of guilt about procrastination. What if that guilt is misplaced? What if your tendency to delay might actually be fueling your best ideas?
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant discovered this counterintuitive truth after initially passing on investing in what would become Warby Parker—a billion-dollar company. His mistake? Judging the founders’ procrastination as a weakness rather than recognizing it as a creative advantage.
In his compelling TED Talk, which you can watch below, Grant reveals research showing that moderate procrastinators consistently outperform both those who rush into tasks immediately and chronic procrastinators who wait until the last second. The sweet spot lies in starting a project but then deliberately delaying completion, allowing ideas to incubate in the background of your mind.
Consider Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The night before the March on Washington, he was rewriting past 3 a.m. Even while sitting in the audience, he continued scribbling notes. When he reached the podium, those famous four words weren’t in his prepared remarks—they emerged from leaving space for inspiration to strike.
This principle extends beyond individual creativity to business strategy. Grant’s research suggests that the concept of “first-mover advantage” is largely a myth. Companies that build upon existing ideas have an 8% failure rate, compared to 47% for first movers. Facebook waited for Myspace, Google came after Yahoo, and both dominated by being different and better, not first.
For entrepreneurs navigating today’s rapidly changing business landscape, this insight is particularly valuable. Rather than rushing to be first to market, focus on observing what exists and asking how it can be meaningfully improved. Sometimes the best business opportunity isn’t the one you seize immediately. It’s the one you let simmer until the right approach becomes clear.
