WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM SUPER SPY JASON BOURNE

On Sunday night, I had rewatched the spy thriller movie, 'The Bourne Ultimatum', on StarHub cable television.

I had in fact watched the movie in the cinema for the first time about a year ago. Please refer to my movie review in an earlier post.

On Monday afternoon, I proceeded to rewatch it one more time. My wife thought I was nuts.

As a matter of fact, I had rewatched 'The Bourne Identity' several times only a week ago, again on StarHub cable television. A few months earlier, I had also rewatched 'The Bourne Supremacy' along the same frequency, more or less.

Why am I so fascinated by this super spy Jason Bourne (JB)?

Well, first thing first, at least for me:

All the three movies were thrilling & entertaining to watch, with splendid action sequences & great story lines. I consider the many choreographed hand-to-hand combat sequences within close quarters as the best I have ever seen in the movies. Even the car chase sequences drove me to the edge of my seat.

More importantly, I strongly feel that there are a lot of good stuff we can learn from Jason Bourne (JB), even though he was seemingly a "make-believe" character with fictional events from the fertile mind of Robert Ludrum, who had written more than twenty spy thrillers, all best sellers on the New York Times, coupled with ingenious adaptations by seasoned Hollywood tale blazers.

Interestingly, I have learned that Robert Ludrum's works were often meticulously researched with accurate technological, geographical & biographical details, even though he was apparently inspired by conspiracy theories, both historically & contemporarily.

I recall watching a video clip from 'The Jason Bourne Collection', comprising 'The Bourne Identity', 'The Bourne Supremacy' & 'The Bourne Ultimatum', which showed a brief interview with a former CIA operative, Chase Brandon, during which he sort of affirmed everything as portrayed in the movie.

Surprisingly, he even acknowledged Jason Bourne (JB) as a typical CIA field agent, & added that all the operational stuff JB had done would have been second nature to a typical CIA field agent.

Marketing hype? I really don't know.

All I am really interested is writing a post on what I think we can learn & how we can draw valuable life lessons from super spy Jason Bourne (JB), just for the fun of it. How about that?

What follows are just my streams of thoughts to put all the learnable stuff together for reader's entertainment:

#1: JB had an acute sense of awareness about his immediate surroundings, & also an uncanny ability to observe exceptions & spot anomalies - to smell out potential trouble or danger, so to speak.

This superb skill of his had allowed him to stay alive for so long, in fact, for three years starting from the botched assassination attempt in the first movie.

I am sure readers who have watched the first movie certainly recall the conversation at the truckstop cafe between JB & his girl friend, Marie, during which JB revealed:

"I come in here, instinctively first thing I do, I'm looking for the exit . . . I'm catching the sightlines . . . I know I can't sit with my back to the door . . . I can tell you the license plate of all 6 cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed & the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds & knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside . . ."

For me, here are some of the selected scenes from the movies that further demonstrated JB's power of observation:

The Bourne Identity:

- observing the compound, the guards, the visitors & noticing Marie as she haggled with the visa officer in the hall at the US Consulate in Zurich, while he was queuing to be served;

- in the Paris apartment, just before a CIA assassin (Castel) came in to kill him & Marie;

- the next morning at the farmhouse (belonging to Marie's boyfriend), when he was told that the dog was missing & prior to the deadly shootout with a CIA assassin (The Professor);

- scanning the vicinity just before the aborted meeting with the rogue CIA coordinator (Conklin) at the Pont Neuf Bridge across the river Seine in Paris (that was a brilliant tactical manoeuvre, as he could later use it as a distraction to plant a tracking device on Conklin's vehicle to discover the location of the CIA safe house in Paris);

- observing the vicinity of the CIA safe house in Paris, just before infiltration;

The Bourne Supremacy:

- at the beginning segment of the movie while hiding out in the beach town of Goa, India, with Marie, during which something caught his attention . . . first, a rental car . . . then a sun-glassed man with sneakers & clothes, which somehow didn't fit into the scene;

- while being detained by Italian immigration/police in the port of Naples, he noticed that a junior CIA guy, who came in to interrogate him, was talking on his hand-phone about JB, after being interrupted during a brief interview . . . resulting in an embarrassing knock-out by JB, & a swift escape from the lock-up, after cloning the CIA guy's handphone;

- at the safe house of a CIA operative (Jarda) in Munich, & upon apprehending him in flexcuffs, noticing that he was watching his watch (he had signalled earlier for a back-up team) . . . prior to an exciting fist fight, resulting in the death of the latter, as well as a swiftly engineered explosive escape;

- sensing trouble at the corridor from inside the hotel room (after deliberately switching the rooms) at the Brecker Hotel in Berlin, resulting in a timely escape from German police;

The Bourne Ultimatum:

- at the busy Waterloo Station in London, which ended up with the fatal shooting of the nosy British reporter by a CIA assassin (Paz);

- at the abandoned premises of CIA section chief in Madrid, Spain, prior to neutralising two CIA operatives;

- following the trail of another CIA operative (Desh) on a scooter in Tangiers, Morocco, prior to the explosion which ended with the death of the CIA section chief, & the resultant rooftop chase through the labyrinth of the old city ;

- observing the movements of CIA deputy director Pamela Landy & CIA Deep Cover Anti-Terrorism Unit Chief Noah Vosen in their respective offices from afar with a telescope, resulting in a successful attempt to steal vital documents from the latter office;

Transposed to the real-world, I have learned that the power of observation or perceptiveness is a very significant key to creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship & strategy formulation.

I have also noticed that a lot of good books in the field of creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship & strategy formulation has already covered this aspect very intelligently.

My favourite authors include: Edward de bono, Michael Michalko, Peter Drucker, Henry Mintzberg, Michel Robert, Joel Arthur Barker, George Day & Paul Shoemaker, Adrian Slywotzky, Benjamin Gilad, Robert Duboff, Peter Schwartz, Faith Popcorn, Wayne Burkan, just to name a few.

Given a choice, I reckon a classic real-world business example is one from the world's most celebrated industrial design firm, IDEO.

One of the hallmarks of their ingenious innovation practice is "observing carefully the behaviour or anthropology of people who are using or going to use the product or service".

Please read about it in an earlier post.

In the realm of strategy formulation, strategy maestro Henry Mintzberg even shared 7 unique viewpoints for "seeing" the world.

Interestingly, even Leonardo da vinci (1452-1519), the great Renaissance maestro, had talked about it many many years ago, since his power of observation was legendary:

". . . for the development of a complete mind . . . develop your senses, especially learn how to see . . ."

Innovation strategist Wayne Burkan, writing in his book, 'Wide Angle Vision', revealed that North American natives practised an observation technique known as "splatter vision", which helped to enhance their tracking skills repertoire. The technique, drawing upon their peripheral vision, allowed them to absorb massive information inputs while scanning the horizon.

Similarly, he revealed that secret service agents, FBI agents, army snipers, police detectives as well as fighter pilots, wild game hunters, bird watchers & nature observers were often trained to apply "splatter vision" in their respective spheres of activity.

In the martial world, it is known as `soft eyes', often exemplified by the late Bruce Lee as he fended off fighting opponents with his stealthy anticipatory 'Jeet Kun Do' moves.

As a matter of fact, in the 'Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy', Japan's legendary combat strategist, Miyamoto Mushashi, taught how to 'relax & unfocus' the eyes in order to secure a sure victory during life-&-death duels.

[to be continued in the Next Post]