A few weeks ago The New Yorker magazine had an article on Agatha Christie. It took an in-depth look at her life and career and her relationship to her work. She was a writer with a prolific reputation who had penned more than 50 novels AND whose work helped to define and shape an entire genre of writing. I was surprised to learn however that she was not always content with her work. It seems that as her life evolved and changed she was, at times, quite disenchanted with her writing and dissatisfied with many of the novels she produced. Yet she continued to churn out mystery novel after mystery novel. This didn’t reflect the tenor of the rest of her life…she was married to an archaeologist and spent much of her time traveling the world, going on digs, and helping to restore the treasures they found. Not only did it bother me that she continued producing work she didn’t enjoy but this work/life incongruence bothered me as well… It seems that she got stuck in a certain role, with a certain reputation and was limited by her readers’ and publishers’ expectations.

Yet this story didn’t seem new as much as it served as an excellent example of what can happen when we forget that our businesses are best seen as living organisms rather than puzzles to be put on auto-pilot as soon as a winning formula is discovered. What bothers me most is the wasted opportunity. She had fame, notoriety, skill, and creativity yet she continued to do the same thing over and over rather than adapt, evolve, or change her business to suit her changing life and needs. There’s nothing wrong with replication or doing something over and over in so far that you love it, find it challenging, stimulation, intriguing…anything…just not boring.

As entrepreneurs we work hard to build our businesses so that we have the freedom to chart our own course and to keep them interesting in the ways we see fit. Agatha’s story can serve as a great reminder for us all about seizing the opportunity to build something that can grow with us and evolve to meet our changing needs and interests.

 Posted by Adelaide Lancaster

Image courtesy of starbee.