What You Refused to Change
The things that hold reveal what you actually believe
Most of the conversation around adaptability focuses on what you changed. The pivot. The evolution. The willingness to let go.
Less gets said about the things you refused to change. But those teach you something too.
I’ve held positions under pressure that turned out to be wrong. Stubbornness dressed up as principle. But I’ve also held positions that everyone told me to abandon, and holding them turned out to be the right call. The pressure to adapt was real. So was the cost of doing so.
The tricky part: both situations felt similar in the moment. External pressure. Internal doubt. People questioning whether you’re being strategic or just stubborn.
What I’ve learned is that the things you refuse to change reveal what you actually believe. Not what you say you believe. Not what looks good in a strategy deck. The real priorities. The ones that hold when holding is expensive.
Sometimes that refusal is fear dressed as conviction. Sometimes it’s wisdom that only becomes visible later.
The question worth asking isn’t just “What should I adapt?” It’s also “What have I refused to change, and why?”
If the answer is “because it would be hard,” that’s worth examining. But if the answer is “because this is what we’re actually here to do,” that’s worth protecting.
Adaptation gets the headlines. But sometimes the story is about what stayed the same.