CVS Celebrity: James Bond
He’s the secret agent with a license to kill. But does every man want to be 007? It depends on your MDNA.
Fictional characters also can have MDNA profiles. Typically every great character is based upon somebody in real life, except the persona and core traits are amplified. This makes learning the principles of their MDNA profile much easier and a valuable exercise. Not to mention it can be fun and entertaining.
James Bond’s psychological profile (even though he is a fictional character) has been greatly analyzed and debated over the years. The truth is, though he is an action hero and suave with the ladies, he isn’t a very nice person. He’s basically an anti-hero. To some he is cool and sexy. To others he is a sociopath, misogynist and emotionally broken.
Yet if you analyze the common intrinsic motivations of the character through the movies, you will see the CVS (Compelling Value & Stewardship) MDNA. This is a great example of where the CVS is not just about financial resources. To the pure CVS, everything is a resource, external and internal, to be accessed and managed for some form of ROI.
“Relentlessly Resourceful”
When describing the CVS, we know they are very private, independent and the most diverse of all the MDNA gifts. We like to use the term “relentlessly resourceful.” James Bond is all of the above. He shares very little about his personal life, always works alone (except for the Bond girl), and must think on his feet using every tool available to be the hero. He is not interested in building an empire for himself like the DLF. He also loathes having to depend on others because someone will always double-cross you. This is why you can never con a CVS because he is always expecting the other shoe to drop.
In fact, all lone wolf and mysterious anti-heroes in entertainment and fiction are versions of CVS–just with different secondary gifts to make them different. Think Wolverine of the X-Men, Jason Bourne from The Bourne Identity, and Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead.
The other amplified CVS trait of Bond is that there is no black and white. Everything is a shade of grey meaning they have no problem with ideological differences. They are free to comply or rebel simply because they can and want to. This is why James Bond has no problem using questionable methods to get the job done. In the same vein, a CVS always chooses to solve problems in a creative fashion versus bashing down the front door.
Is James Bond a severely “damaged” character?
Of course. Isn’t that why we enjoy watching him so much? The lesson here is not to confuse someone’s mental health with their motivational value system. Your intrinsic motivations drive you regardless of your dysfunctions.
An interesting experiment would be how each MDNA gift would use a license to kill differently. If you are familiar with MDNA, you probably already can see the differences. But, thankfully, this is one R&D question we never could (and should) really test. But I do confess, I would be curious. Hmmm…