In celebrity news this week, Daniel Craig will be back as 007 in the next James Bond film slated to be in theaters Nov 8, 2019. (My birthday by the way. Thanks MGM)
But his return is quite the surprise for us interested in the movie franchise. When Time Out asked Daniel about returning for the next Bond movie after Specter in 2015, Daniel let us know:
I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists.
Daniel Craig is a giant flip flopper…
As many families do, after a long week, my wife and I don’t feel like cooking on Friday night, so we look to eat out. We are terrible however with the decision about where to go.
We simply don’t care enough. I’m not a picky eater. I don’t feel strongly about most restaurants we can choose. We hem and haw about going to this place or that place. I remember nights where we would eventually just give up on our plan to go out, since we couldn’t decide.
Then we had a kid, Addison. She’s three. Most of you know at least something about three year olds. Holy hell they have strong opinions.
Think getting her to wash her hands before dinner is going to be easy tonight? Forget it. She’d rather throw herself from the stairs.
But this has also been a blessing. For those dinners on Friday nights when we have trouble deciding, we just let her decide. And she does. Instantly.
Her strong opinions lead to very quick and certain action. And we keep tapping into that.
For many parents, choosing a preschool is a stressful activity. It wasn’t for us. Folks are amused when they ask us “How’d you choose Addison’s preschool?”
I tell them, “Addison picked it.”
She’s three!? And she picked her school when she was two?
Yes. My wife and I had been debating between three different preschools. They all had various pros and cons. In our minds they all felt a bit equal. We didn’t feel strongly. The decision started dragging on.
So we just let the strong opinion holder decide. And she did. It took seconds. She picked the school she wanted and we went with it. It’s been a great choice. Of course if she said, “I want to go to school at McDonald’s” we’d have intervened.
“Strong opinions, weakly held” is a phrase a bunch of interesting people have publicly adopted: Marc Andreessen, Fred Wilson, Jeff Atwood.
Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster, and once the Director of the Institute for the Future, coined the phrase in the 1980s that leaders who want to successfully lead their organizations through uncertainty and ambiguity need to have “strong opinions, weakly held”. It’s the only way to get anything done.
Should we build this product? Prioritize that feature? This marketing plan? If you have weak opinions you won’t have the energy to get unstuck. You’ll be paralyzed in indecision. And you won’t be able to convince anyone else to follow you through the challenges.
But having a strong opinion doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be open minded. Be passionate about your ideas and thoughts. Use that energy to get the evidence to back them up and get people to help you. But don’t close off arguments. Flip flop when something convinces you you’re wrong.
One thing that caught my eye about Daniel Craig is how productive he’s been, especially now since Spectre the last Bond movie he had announced would be his last in 2015.
4 projects quickly followed in 2017 with major changes to his normal character repertoire and a TV show with a demanding schedule.
Compare that to the last two Bond actors who were in just a couple projects in the two years following their roles as Bond.
Daniel Craig’s strong opinions appear to have given him the ability to make quick and decisive action to tackle some really interesting and different projects in 2017.
But he has flip flopped.
That’s fine. The rumor was an enormous paycheck convinced him, but that’s been debunked. I think he simply likes the role. And much needed rest after the crazy production of the last Bond movie gave him a new perspective. He was always open minded about the opportunity, even if his opinion was once strongly against it.
I think more of us have to step up and form strong opinions about the decisions we have. Anytime you have a inkling about what’s right, use that energy to see it through. Stay open minded when people and situations naturally push back, but either way you win and increase your productivity, energy and drive.
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