Adam Grant was teaching his first class at the Wharton business School when a student came up to him with an interesting proposition.
He says, I've got this big idea.
Three friends and I are going to start an online business, and we're going to disrupt an industry.
Do you want to invest?
But from what Adam could see, this group of friends wasn't doing so well and getting their big idea off the ground.
Six months go by, it's the day before launch.
They still don't have a functioning website.
The whole business is a website.
That's literally all it is.
And so I obviously passed on the.
Investment the name of the company.
Warby Parker.
They were just named the most innovative company in the world by fast company, and they're worth over a billion dollars, which is why my wife handles all our investments now.
I'm Shankar Vedantam, and this week on hidden brain originals, how to spot one, how to be one.
We bring you my conversation with Adam Grant.
He's a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and he's the author of the new book originals how non conformists move the world.
I asked Adam what the Wabi parker episode had taught him about the qualities of innovators.
They often procrastinate, and that's how they.
Incubate ideas, what parents can do to nurture originality in their kids.
Their parents focus more on values than the rules.