Agatha Christie

What failed

She trained seriously as a musician and two careers died before she wrote anything. Her shyness ruled out performing, and an audition ended the singing with a flat verdict that her voice was not strong enough and never would be. Her first novel was sent out repeatedly and never found a publisher. When she finished the detective novel that introduced Poirot, Hodder and Stoughton returned it, Methuen turned it down too, and it went from house to house until the seventh sat on it for about two years — long enough that she had stopped thinking about it.

What happened next

The seventh publisher accepted it, on a contract committing her next five books, which she later felt was exploitative. She made twenty-five pounds from it. She went on to become the best-selling novelist in history.

The point

Two careers she had trained for closed before the one she is remembered for opened, and the thing that finally worked sat unread on a desk for two years. Neither the training nor the waiting was wasted; neither felt like progress at the time.