4+ Entrepreneurial Lessons from PBS Masterpiece's #Sanditon

It is a truth universally acknowledged...that I'm a huge Jane Austen fan! What I love about her stories is her ability to write onion-like characters: complex, sometimes prickly or a little dirty on the outside, with a lot of layers, and oftentimes...turning a bit mushy in the end. I. Cannot. Get. Enough.

But the love, sex, and intrigue stories aren't my only reason for enjoying a good JA story. In fact, such is the case with PBS's latest Masterpiece, literally - Sanditon.

If you haven't been watching--it is an 8-episode series plot written around Jane Austen's last unfinished book by the same title, by Andrew Davies, of many other screen adaptations of Jane's works. The penultimate episode 7 of Sanditon was shown last night in the US, and the entire series was developed by the Red Planet Pictures in 2019 and shown on ITV, which canceled season 2. (And BTW, don't buy the audience argument - even did a Google trends analysis on it vs. Downton Abbey, here.)

*Aside from the final episode airing next week and the #SanditonSisterhood over at Twitter being on pins and needles as to whether or not the second season will ever come to fruition, (myself included--seriously PBS, take my money for it) I think Sanditon might just be my favorite of all Jane Austen stories thus far, and not for the reasons you may think.

Actually, here are 4+ entrepreneurial reasons why I love Sanditon…apart from my Jane-session, whilst trying not to give any plot twists away. (NOTE: you may not want to read on if you’re still not sure how episode 8 turns out. I did way too much internet searching to learn about it, but I’ll try my best not to give anything away through this post.)

1.    Change – The most articulated insights on the change seen in one of the male characters – Mr. Sidney Parker, was actually in the Masterpiece podcast (which BTW I love--Jace Lacob has been a co-host of), with the actor playing Sidney, Theo James (Yes, he also played Mr. Pamuk in Downton Abbey and Four on The Divergent Series. Sidney and Charlotte (the female protagonist of the story) meet and instantly...get on each other's nerves. In a huge way. Sidney comes off as a cold, uncaring and vituperative soul whenever he encounters Charlotte at his brother's estate, and yet, at some point during the story unfolding, realizes that Charlotte is changing him--not by force or by manipulation--but by surprising him and being...capable. This surprise in fact changes Mr. Sidney and his opinion of Charlotte, which led to the highest compliment of all he could pay Miss Charlotte at the end of episode 7.

Entrepreneurs have to realize that sometimes, they're just wrong, and they need to pivot or change. Failure can be inevitable. The adaptability and flexibility of being a change agent is a hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. Markets and ideas can change in the course of an hour, or even a day (shout out, Lord Babington). Change through oneself is a must-have trait as a successful entrepreneur.

2.    Rebellion - Charlotte is a farmer's daughter, and the entire series opens up...with her hunting rabbits. This is unexpected for a young woman of the regency period. Most of Jane Austen's characters are rebellious, but I love Charlotte being the most rebellious of all, in that she reads books, she doesn't faint at the site of blood, doesn't give a hoot about marriage, and actually does the right thing despite her own mortality being in the way. (Like running toward the carriage while she was hunting due to a wheel coming off and how she met the first brother Parker in the series, or running toward old Stringer when he fell at the construction site, or running off to London to find Miss Lambe, her friend, despite Mary telling her no.)

Charlotte is a (surprisingly) progressive, non-stereotypical rebel. Doing the right thing is not always easy. However, rebels are great at bucking the system in order to make things better. It's never easy being the person who ends up not going along to get along either. Thankfully, many entrepreneurs get the dark horse thinking, because otherwise, we wouldn't have many of the technological advances today without that system-bucking-black-sheep-low-odds-high-potential-return mindset. I think of Peter Thiel when I think of Charlotte - who in his book, Zero to One, loves to ask: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?" It's a method of progress, and a measure of rebellion.

3.    Social enterprise - Back to the podcast link I shared with Theo James - he describes Mr. Sidney as a bit self-loathing, because he made money near the hand of slavery, and he hated slavery. However, he moved out of the sugar business because of slavery as well. He didn't want blood money, but did want to be industrious and make the world a better place. His brother Tom Parker, another of the central characters in the story, also was throwing his whole life into building the sea side town into a resort of Sanditon for the rich and famous, because he believed in it. He loved the restorative effect of the sea.

I have to be careful at this point, because I don't want to give away episode 8 - but...the idea of having a business that does well AND good is an important theme I don't want to miss here through the arc of this story. The days of 'greed is good' are not such the case here necessarily. Social entrepreneurship takes a bit of naïveté in that one has to have an inherent desire to not only make money, but invest in the future and good. While it is yet to be seen if Mr. Tom Parker's vision of Sanditon comes to fruition or not is not the point. The point is that he has the idea of doing well and doing good at the same time, and Sidney at several points comes to Tom's defense about his vision as well when others challenge it. Entrepreneurship intersecting with social improvement is something all CEOs must now embrace, as so many of the world's problems have come solely from greed and profit being the sole motive for starting something that makes a difference. The progressive idea of starting something and making the world a better place is something we are all faced with today - with limited resources and a planet that we are destroying in many ways.

4.    Leaving the world better than you found it - Sidney's rant at the ball in episode 1 said it best about defending his brother Tom on trying to leave the world better than he found it through his passion project of Sanditon. To the point that sacrifices must be made, even to and for the family over individual needs. This theme was also in another recent favorite movie I saw, The Sun is Also a Star. Is it more important to sacrifice the self for the family in order to make the world a better place?

Maybe. Maybe not - which warrants the + on the title of this post. And I love that this series is challenging that notion. TBD on this one.

Also, I love that the brothers Parker in this story (well, at least 2 out of 3) really are trying to make their own way in the universe, rather than marry into money (at least after watching ep. 7). This is a very different theme than the past Jane Austen novels, where plots and scheming took place to marry into money as the only way to make it in the world. This takes on the idea that one can make it on their own, after all (very Mary Tyler Moore!)

In conclusion, I'll just put one final tiny plea here on LinkedIn to share that there are many unanswered questions in season 1 of this series, and that I sincerely hope there will be a season 2. With all the garbage on television these days (and yes, there's a ton of garbage in many ways on the small screen), there is something about this series and Jane Austen that is timeless, even progressive and ahead of its time, and keeps us (or at least me) coming back for more. That and I don't think Ms. Austen would approve of the ending of season 1 being THE ending. There is more to tell in this version of Sanditon - be it for the entrepreneur in us, the progressives, the rebels, the change agents, the heroes and sheroes, or all of the above.

*P.S. The second season of Sanditon is tenuous at best right now. So if you, like me, want to see a season 2, we all need to:

• tweet about the show,
• sign the petition,
• write an email to our friends at PBS Masterpiece about the value of it, or
• support it online at PBS right now.
• You can follow #sanditonsisterhood or #sanditonseason2 over at Twitter for more on all of this.
• Speaking of big business, the film industry makes serious bank with a rabid audience, even if a series doesn't take off right away in the US vs. EU. Look at the google analytics stats on Sanditon vs. Downton Abbey below for searches since the start below, and the film industry's spend vs. revenue on Downton Abbey the film.

Source on first image of 3 on Downton box office is here.

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Erin L. Albert is a writer, and huge Jane Austen fangirl. Opinions are her own above unless otherwise noted.