Sometimes the best move for your career is to enter a different orbit.

Unless you own the organization—and even then—you can’t fully control how the hierarchy, the structure, and the culture will actually play out.

As a company scales, new landscapes emerge.

Personalities. Incentives. Styles that don’t match yours. Power dynamics that quietly make it harder to run downhill.

Classic corporate politics.

It’s often ugly and frustrating. But it’s better to see the jungle for what it is than to flail inside it.

follow the energy

When you notice a cultural shift, listen.

Not because every shift is “bad,” but because every shift changes what your days feel like.

So do a simple audit:

• What tasks give you energy?
• What people give you energy?
• What work makes you feel more like yourself?

And on the other side:

• What drains you?
• What has you bracing before meetings?
• What leaves you depleted even when you “win”?

If the trend line is moving toward more draining people, more draining activities, and a culture that rewards that drain… that’s information.

It might be telling you it’s time to move and find something else.

don’t fight gravity

Some personalities have a lot of gravity.

They have force. They pull attention. They bend outcomes. They make whole rooms recalibrate.

You can choose to fight them.

I’m going to stand my ground.

Sometimes that’s the right call. But remember what a fight costs.

A fight requires tremendous energy. It’s not “running downhill.” It’s an uphill battle.

And when you’re walking uphill, you can’t see the horizon—you can only see the hill.

That’s the sneaky part.

The hill becomes your whole world.

choose a different mountain

Maybe rather than climbing to stake your ground, there’s another route.

A different mountain. A different vantage point. A different place where you can create value in your own kingdom—where your energy gets spent on building and growth, not jockeying for position.

If someone has already staked their ground, choose your battles wisely.

You don’t need to fight them most of the time.

And when organizational changes put you in a tough spot, remember: the best move isn’t always to crash your wave against theirs and prove you’re right.

If you’re not in a position of equal power—or greater power—sometimes the smartest thing you can do is sidestep the tsunami.

Pull out of the orbit.

Not as surrender.

As strategy.