Sarah Robb O’Hagan - Extreme You: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat.

For Mum and Dad,

Extreme Jenny and Honorable John,

for showing me there were big mountains to climb, and for letting me figure out how to climb them.

And for Liam, Sam, Joe, and Gabby,

for making the entire journey worthwhile.

Its not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Sitting at the front of the auditorium, waiting to deliver a speech at an undergrad business conference at Harvard, I began to have an uncomfortable feeling. I was to be the keynote speaker, the opener at this event, with about a thousand attendees from universities around the world, and my bloody MacBook would not connect to the conference organizers projection equipment. Yep, thats righthundreds of young people were streaming through the doors and taking their seats as I stood there with sweat bullets on my forehead wondering what kind of interpretive dance I was going to have to do for them if the damn projector wouldnt connect.

To add a little more pressure, Donna Karan, a business hero of mine and a legend of the business world, was to be the closer. She wasnt even due to speak for another five hours, yet her people had already arrived to make sure her presentation was all set to work. Oh, Godwhy didnt I have people to take care of such issues? This wasnt the first time that the tornado that is Sarah Robb OHagan had blown into an auditorium attempting to look perfectly polished and professional when in fact behind the scenes I was anything but.

The young woman who had organized the conference stood up to introduce me. She read out my bio word for word, and of course I knew what it said. It was the bio used in the promotional materials for the conference, the bio I gladly distributed because it gave the impression that I was a serious success storya reinventor of brands whod worked at Virgin and Nike, a workout queen who brought an athletes mind-set to business problems, one of Fast Companys Most Creative People in Business, Ad Ages Women to Watch, a three-time recipient of SportsBusiness Dailys Forty Under 40 Award, and named by Forbes as one of the Most Powerful Women in Sports. Many of those accolades had come to me when I had served as global president of Gatorade, one of the worlds most iconic sports brands, and led that brand through a major turnarounda transformational journey from sports drink company to sports performance innovator, returning the once-struggling business to healthy growth. After that I had gone on to be president of Equinox, the worlds premier fitness lifestyle company, named by Fast Company as one of 2015s Most Innovative Companies in Fitness, and now I am the CEO of Flywheel Sportsthe awesome, fast-growing indoor cycling company.

But as I listened to this aspiring young businesswoman describe me, something felt very wrong. What bothered me was not what she said but what she left out. My bio made it sound as if I were this polished, perfect business fem-bot. It certainly didnt mention what most of my colleagues see in methe wild storm of enthusiasm and determination, tempered by plenty of embarrassing trip-ups as I work hard to try to hold it all together.

My bio also neglected to mention that for much of my life the results I had delivered had been, at best, average. Sometimes Id not quite made the team. Other times Id been a disappointment. At still other times, Id been what I can only describe as an epic fail. Yep, Im that person who got fired not just once but twice in my twenties. The first time I was singled out as a rabble-rouser and nearly deported from the United States back to my home country of New Zealand because I didnt have an employer and a work visa to keep me here. The second job ended when I was laid off as part of a larger restructuring. Three years of what I fondly refer to as my canyon of career despairhardly a picture-perfect journey.

On the job, too, Ive had plenty of seriously embarrassing screw-upsideas that seemed huge in my mind but shriveled to nothing in the marketplace. Despite all of that, though, by my late thirties, I was giving speeches at conferences where audience members would line up to meet me, asking, How do you do it? Tell us your secret.

My secret, if you really want to know, is that Im about as far from perfect as you can getbut in my experience perfection is overrated. Yes, I made it to president of a $5 billion global sports brand at a pretty early age. But I think all that happened exactly because I wasnt scared of my imperfections, contradictions, and attitude. Listen: Im a big, bold, over-the-top, laugh-till-ya-snort, opinionated, dont-sit-on-the-sidelines, mega-enthusiastic kinda gal. Simple things such as my giant, man-sized feet were an early clue that I was never going to be perfect the way society defines it for us. But I figured that if I kept trying and experimenting to find where I was great and where I sucked, if I kept believing that I could excel somewhere, somehow, eventually Id find my own path to my own kind of greatness. I chose the path of living my personality to its fullest to get where I wanted to go. And Ive come to realize that Im not alone.

Angela Ahrendts. Bode Miller. Condoleezza Rice. Mister Cartoon. Angela Lee Duckworth. Sam Kass. Casey Wasserman. Bozoma Saint John. You might wonder what a business leader, a downhill skier, a former secretary of state, a tattoo artist, a psychologist, a chef, a sports business founder, and a music executive have in common. They just happen to be the best in the world at what they do, but none of them started their careers knowing exactly where their true greatness would lie.

One of the great benefits of my career journey is the amazing opportunity I have had to meet and work with so many successful people from many different walks of life. Ive had the chance to observe how they do what they do. Behind the accolades and the glowing media articles that say how awesome they are, youll find that they have had an extraordinary impact by embracing every aspect of themselvesthe good and the badbecause they took risks and worked through the sometimes tough negative consequences. They didnt expect their greatness to just happen; instead they worked their asses off to outperform everyone around them with a potent mix of drive and humility. They are Extremers, those who reach the summit of their potential by developing their unique mix of abilities in their own personal way.

Anyone can do this. I call it developing Extreme Youbecoming the best you can be as only you can. Extreme You is not one fixed goal. It doesnt depend on the typical early indicators of success (high test scores, star turns in sports or the arts, membership in elite social and professional networks) or on flashy short-term achievements. The fact is, most of us dont make a big splash early, and most achievements, as the world judges them, soon fade. Nor is Extreme You just a style or an attitude. Extremers have a ton of attitudedo we ever!but it goes far beyond surface dazzle.

Extreme You is a lifelong method for discovering and making the most of whats in you, starting from wherever you are with your own diverse mix of interests, skills, and experiencesand yes, that includes setbacks, losses, weaknesses, and failures. Extremers discover that the more they develop themselves, the more new potential they find. They learn to embrace the support of others in making their Extreme efforts and to collaborate by bringing out the Extreme in others. They are successful, yes, but on their own terms, almost as a by-product of developing Extreme You.

Are you a dreamer? I know I was. As a kid growing up in New Zealand, I imagined I could have a big impact on the world. I was constantly searching for my calling, trying on different visions of my future. I dreamed I could be a famous tennis player, but then I had the small problem that I never won any tournaments. I thought I could win an Olympic swimming medal, but my parents werent those kind of parentsthey showed no interest in taking me to a pool at five every morning. I wanted to sing as beautifully as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa at the royal wedding (though I still dont think we should forgive Diana for that dress choice... ), but the choir director never picked me for solos. I thought I could be a famous actress, and I was certain my moment was coming when I tried out to play Sandy in our high school production of