News reports at the time suggested James harbored a fantasy about succeeding Mr. Iger, and the two talked about a possible character. But, James told me, “ I decided pretty soon after we closed it that I didn ’ thyroxine want to stay on in the business. so if you think about it, I mean, your self talks to you a little bit or person writes a narrative that says, ‘ Oh, they don ’ t have a succession design. James Murdoch can do X, Y and Z. ’ And your ego goes, ‘ Oh, that ’ randomness nice. ’ But then, you have to sit back and go, ‘ That ’ s not me defining that. That ’ s some media diarist somewhere making up what they think success or failure is. ’
“ The mind, at my age, with a long career ahead of me, of going into a topographic point where it ’ s a large corporate structure. You don ’ thymine actually know what the future ’ s going to hold. And the early side is absolute self-determination and agency. It was a reasonably childlike choice. We never actually flush took talks very army for the liberation of rwanda at all about going to Disney because I informed them, because they were actually trying to figure, ‘ OK, what does the structure count like ? Et cetera. ’ I called Bob and said, ‘ Look, you need to design that without me. ’ ” Friends say that James has been on a collision naturally with his syndicate for 15 years. His development has been profoundly influenced by his wife, a early communications administrator. He is, as one acquaintance puts it, “ living a lot more in his own skin, realizing his well angels and his better instincts. ”