# Being accommodating — is it good for your career? How do you know when to stop playing the willingness game? Being accommodating is something we're taught from childhood. Some learn it better than others. I, for example, never liked playing by the rules, yet I always tried to be as pleasing as possible. For everyone. And it worked brilliantly. Until it didn't. The "I'm accommodating, I'll adapt" card plays well early in your career. When you're 20-25, you don't have many playable cards: endless energy, lightning-fast learning ability, willingness to be flexible. So until about thirty, you play these cards. You exchange endless energy for experience. Adaptability for social connections. Lightning-learning for precious knowledge. Then you find yourself slightly past 35 with other powerful cards in hand. Expertise. Depth. Experience. A stack of mistakes thick enough to fill a small, sad book. But somehow the "I'm accommodating, I'll adapt" card is still on the table. Then again — why wouldn't it be there? It worked fine all along. Except earlier this card played in combination with endless energy and inexperience. Now it plays alongside self-deprecation, impostor syndrome, and your inner critic. Unsolicited career advice: If you're slightly past 35 and still playing this card—you're undervaluing all the experience you've so diligently collected over the last 20 years. Others — accommodating and energetic will be hired more cheaply and easily. This world needs you for something more. If you're under 30 and ready to adapt and basically ready for anything—great, that's how it should be. But remember, the "endless energy" card will eventually run out. And the "I'm accommodating" card will stop being an advantage. You'll need stronger cards. And luck. Everyone needs luck. At any stage. P.S. All this might sound like I've figured everything out for myself. That's absolutely not the case. I'll go back to accommodating. But I'll do it knowingly. And with stronger cards for awesome combos ;)