Anyone who knows me well, knows I dislike self-help books and motivational speakers. However, I love hearing people tell stories about their life. The best lessons are those learned from experience. And the best teachers are often those who aren’t professional teachers.
When I saw the title of Sarah Robb O’Hagan’s keynote address at a recent conference I was attending, I cringed. Did I really want to spend 30 minutes listening to some unknown speaker tell me how to be “Extreme”?
As is often the case, the best speakers are the ones you are least interested in hearing. Robb O’Hagan kept me awake, alert and engaged by sharing with us her life story…in 30 minutes. Wanting to know more, I hustled up to her table after the talk and grabbed a copy of her book “Extreme You. Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat.”
For someone who has lived her life in exclusively in the corporate world, Sarah Robb O’Hagan has lived a life of extremes. By age 26, she was dining with Richard Branson on his yacht in Cannes as head of North American marketing for Virgin Airways. Just a few short years later, she had flamed out of positions at Virgin Megastores and Atari. Her career, and confidence, in tatters, she accepted a regional promotions position with Nike and started the long journey back up the corporate ladder. Today, she is best known for leading the transformation of Gatorade from a just another flavored sports drink to a full-line of sports performance products, the G-series.
As interesting as her life is, and the lives of the many other “Extremers” she profiles, this is still a self-help book. In the course of telling us her life story, Robb O’Hagen shares with us several of the lessons she learned along the way. As with most self-help tomes, the lessons can usually be whittled down to one or two key take-aways. For me, the key take-aways were:
- Know your strengths and play to them. I know, that seems obvious. But, Robb O’Hagen’s contention is that we need to take it to the extreme. Once youI have identified your strengths, look for any and every opportunity to utilize them. Or, as Robb O’Hagen says often “step out of line”.
- Know your weaknesses and find others who compliment you. Again, this seems obvious. However, Robb O’Hagen wants us to make our weaknesses front and center. Do not hide them. This keeps us humble and makes us better team players.
If you are looking for a fun read that will also motivate you to step out of line, I highly recommend Sarah Robb O’Hagan’s autobiography/self-help book “Extreme You. Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat.”