Despite having young people in mind when she launched the ExtremeYOU platform, O’Hagan believes people of all ages and career stages can benefit from what she calls “checking ourselves out”. In other words, taking time to understand yourself as a person and to discover your own unique traits and talents. Only once this is achieved will Extremers be able to maximise their talents and push past failures. Understandably, O’Hagan says, this is not always easy. “How I was able to find mine was a lot of trial and error,” she says. The key, according to O’Hagan, is moving past that fear and seizing every opportunity you get. Her biggest advice? Don’t wait for opportunities to come along – go out there and find them. “If you worry too much about that, you’ll end up standing on the sidelines for too long, as opposed to just getting in there and starting and trying things. Inevitably, whatever you do, it will open up new doors because you’ve started on something.” Indeed, taking well-calculated risks is heralded by both experts and successful people alike as being a contributing factor in success. And arguably, it’s a skill that women may have more difficulty grasping than their male counterparts. According to some studies, women are more risk averse than men. In 2012, psychologists from the British Psychological Society who surveyed more than 2000 working men a nd women worldwide found that men are twice as likely to take risks than women. Although the cause of this is debatable (some experts believe this has more to do with wage gaps than it does human nature), playing it safe in the workspace is not always the best policy according to O’Hagan.
but at a personal level. “I was just so much more confident because I was effectively being myself, speaking my own language… as opposed to editing myself into a system that was very foreign to me.” Although she didn’t know it at the time, O’Hagan’s refusal to conform would later become one of her greatest attributes. A technique she fondly refers to in her book as ‘getting out of line’, O’Hagan stresses the importance of knowing when to challenge the status quo. But the CEO also warns while it is important to be confident enough to make bold moves and speak out where appropriate, true Extremers always strive to remain humble. ‘Getting over yourself ’, and acknowledging your weaknesses are also required to achieve greatness, she says. This is because Extremers, while positioning themselves for great success, are likely to also face great failures. Just like O’Hagan, all of the successful subjects featured in ExtremeYOU faced significant setbacks. But, like O’Hagan, they mastered the art of grit. A hot topic among researchers in recent years, the concept of grit and resilience is often said to be the backbone of success. First brought to the public eye by Angela Duckworth, a prominent member of the psychology community and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the term grit has now become a popular teaching tool for students.
If you worry too much about that you’ll end up standing on the sidelines for too long, as opposed to just getting in there and starting and trying things.
She believes many people in the work force with a tendency towards conforming and ‘editing ourselves down’ could actually be doing themselves a disservice by not being true to their character. The pressure to conform to business and industry norms is something the CEO and writer has grappled with herself. Describing a time early in her career when she worked for Air New Zealand, O’Hagan says she would frequently find herself in a state of distress because of this. “At times, I would go home at night in tears because I had to put my presentations together in a way the company liked to do it and it was like speaking a foreign language for me,” the author explains. “I remember saying to my boss, ‘this is it, you should either fire me right now or I’m going to start doing things the way I know how to do them’.” Dubbing it her ‘Jerry Maguire moment’, O’Hagan’s brave decision to confront her boss would eventually pay off – not only for the business
Today O’Hagan is hoping to use the tool to help Extremers of all ages find the determination they need to succeed in their chosen field. “There are a couple of incredible stories in [the book], of people who really were at the top of their game and their willingness to go back and start over on something, and really deeply learn again, was incredibly courageous,” the author explains. “It just made me realise that it is a journey. Whether you’re in your 20s, 40s or 60s, there’s still so much opportunity to develop and learn – but you have to have the humility to be willing to do it and I found that to be really inspiring.” Coming to terms with her own humility, the Kiwi businesswoman is determined to continue challenging herself. With more self-help tools in the works, and plans to bring ExtremeYOU to disadvantaged youth communities, O’Hagan is hoping to seriously expand the ExtremeYOU platform. And between running two companies and running multiple marathons, the CEO and author has even found time to pick up a new hobby – piano lessons. Ironically, it’s not the running of two companies that O’Hagan struggles with the most. It’s the piano. “I actually didn’t enjoy [the piano lessons] very much,” says O’Hagan, who describes herself as “useless” at playing the musical instrument. But, as she so clearly challenges, you’ll never know until you try.
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