One of the aspects of ourselves that we tend to associate strongly with are the opinions we hold. Whether it is opinions about politics, about the society we live in, the reality of our work and our profession or anything else that affects us, we tend to have opinions and we tend to consider those to be part of who we are. This is in my experience dangerous as everything changes and we need to be able to change our opinions in response to that. The technique that works well in venture capital is the principle of “strong opinions, loosely held”. The idea is that in a VC firm, a partner has to go into an investment meeting with a strong opinion on why a certain investment is worth pursuing. But the partner is expected to change his or her mind when evidence becomes available that the opinion was incorrect. As VCs try to predict a future that is not here yet and bet their LPs and their own funds on these opinions, this is an important principle. I meet many people who identify too strongly with their, by now outdated, opinions. Ranging from Nokia executives who were convinced that nobody in their right mind would want to touch the screen of their phone to fascists and communists who, despite millions of dead during the last century due to both ideologies, hold on to their beliefs. We should have opinions as we can’t make decisions otherwise. But we should not identify with these, but rather move on to new ones when the data justifies it. So, what opinion are you letting go of today?