It’s strange how fast we’ve made speed the ultimate virtue in business.

A few decades ago, staying at a company for twenty-plus years was seen as a badge of honor.
Now, if you’ve stuck around for more than two, people wonder what’s wrong with you.
“What are you waiting for?”
“Haven’t you “moved on”?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be chasing something newer, bigger, better?”

We’ve built a professional culture that rewards motion.

New job titles.
New startups.
New pivots.
New industries.
New LinkedIn updates for a resume that screams momentum.

But here’s the question that’s been sitting with me:

Have we confused movement with progress?
Because exploration (real exploration) isn’t always in motion.
It doesn’t always come with a new role or a press release.
It doesn’t always look productive on the outside.

Sometimes it’s the choice to stay put long enough to understand where the edges are…

And then gently, deliberately, push against them.
It’s what happens in the in-between spaces:

• The sabbatical that wasn’t about burnout, but discovery.
• The cross-functional project that made no sense until it changed your worldview.
• The side hustle that introduced you to the person who changed your trajectory.
• The mentor you weren’t looking for who gave you the right words at the right time.

These are the parts of a career that don’t show up in LinkedIn updates.

They rarely get framed as “wins.”
But they often hold more power than the traditional milestones we celebrate.
Exploration takes time.
It takes discomfort.
It takes a kind of slowness that feels wrong in a world optimized for acceleration.
It’s in those messy, nonlinear moments where most of the real growth actually happens (or is it just me who believes this?).

So what if we started recognizing that?

So what if we started rewarding that?
So what if we started truly admiring those who are deep into the exploring?
What if we valued curiosity detours?
Celebrated people who took a step sideways or backward to see things from a new angle?
Respected those who stayed long enough in a space to actually understand it… not just leverage it?

Because the truth is:

Not every valuable experience comes with a promotion.
Not every inflection point fits neatly into a box labeled “career move.”
Not every choice we make is forward and upward (especially when it comes to compensation).

Some of the most transformative parts of a career are invisible.

The fuzzy stuff.
But they’re very real.
And maybe the biggest shift we can make in how we think about work is this…

Stop asking: “Where are you going?”
Start asking: “What are you discovering?”

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.